UC-NRLF
The Great
Cottonseed Industry
or THE
South
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Class
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
BY
LUTHER A. RANSOM
Ex-President The Inter-State Cottoneed Crushers 3
Association
NEW YORK
OIL, PAINT AND DRUG REPORTER
IOO WILLIAM STREET
IQII
Copyright
1911
Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter
New York
THE GREAT COTTONSEED INDUS-
TRY OF THE SOUTH
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
In June, 1910, the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter re-
quested the late Luther A. Ransom, of Atlanta, Ga., one of
the most prominent men in the Cotton Oil Industry in the
United States, who was an ex-President of the Interstate
Cottonseed Crushers' Association, to prepare an article on
the cottonseed industry for publication in that paper. On
July 18 Mr. Ransom wrote that the article which he had
been working on during his spare time had grown to the
dimensions of a book, and stated that he believed the
subject of the great cottonseed industry of the South,
treated purely from a historical and industrial standpoint,
ought to be of general interest to the public, and at his
request the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter undertook the
publication of this book. On September 19 Mr. Ransom
wrote a letter discussing certain mechanical features of
the book, which had not definitely been decided upon. At
that time the complete manuscript was in our hands. On
September 20 we received information of Mr. Ransom's
sudden death, which occurred on the 19th.
The arrangements which Mr. Kansom had made for the
publication of his book, just before his death, have been
carried into effect by the publishers. The book is now
223167
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
offered to the public and to that wide circle of friends and
business associates of the late Luther A. Ransom, who did
so much to build up an industry which is becoming a great
factor in the industrial development of the South, in the
hope that it will bring to the attention of the Southern
people the fact that, in the cottonseed industry, they have
an opportunity for making their section of our country
more prosperous. And in increasing the prosperity of the
cotton belt, this industry will aid the whole country, for
it is not only bringing foreign gold to our shores, but it is
supplying to all the people pure and wholesome food prod-
ucts at a lower cost than the other foods which it replaces.
And in these days, Avheu the high cost of living is a most
serious problem, anything which affords relief is welcomed
as a blessing. If this book will encourage the farmers to
raise better seed, the crushers to produce better and purer
food products and better feed for cattle, if it will encourage
the Southern farmers to raise more cattle, feeding them
the rich foods stored up in the cottonseed, and if it will
induce people to overcome their prejudices and eat the
wholesome and delicious cottonseed salad oils, hogless
lards and oleomargarines, then will the purpose of the
book have been accomplished, and the people of this coun-
try might well rise up and call the memory of Luther A.
Ransom blessed.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE 9
CHAPTER 1 13
THE GREAT COTTONSEED INDUSTRY OF THE SOUTH-ITS SMALL
BEGINNINGS ITS RECENT RAPID DEVELOPMENT THE SALES
OF COTTONSEED OIL IN ALL THE MARKETS OF THE WORLD
THE PIONEERS IN THE BUSINESS THE SENSATIONAL INCREASE
IN TRADING IN COTTON OIL ON THE NEW YORK PRODUCE
EXCHANGE THE PRODUCTS OF THE CRUDE COTTONSEED OIL
MILLS THE FOREIGN TARIFFS ON COTTON OIL AND THEIR
EFFECT ON THE INDUSTRY THE REFINED PRODUCTS THE
IMPROVEMENT IN REFINING COTTON OIL AND THE RESULTS-
EXPORTS THE INTERSTATE COTTONSEED CRUSHERS' ASSO-
CIATION AND ITS POWER IN PROMOTING THE INTERESTS OF
THE INDUSTRY A GLANCE AT THE FUTURE.
CHAPTER II 38
COTTONSEED AND COTTONSEED PRODUCTS (ADDRESS BEFORE
THE COTTON SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA,
ATHENS, GA., JANUARY, 1908) THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE
FARMER AND THE OIL MILLS HOW EACH IS BENEFITED BY
AND DEPENDENT UPON THE OTHER THE PRODUCTS MADE
FROM COTTONSEED AND HOW, BY THE MANUFACTURE OF
THESE PRODUCTS, THE MILLS HAVE GREATLY INCREASED THE
VALUE OF THE COTTON CROP.
CHAPTER III 54
THE DAIRY AND OIL MILL INTERESTS (ADDRESS BEFORE THE
GEORGIA DAIRY ASSOCIATION, GRIFFIN, GA.) HOW THE OIL
MILL HAS BENEFITED THE DAIRY INTERESTS AND CATTLE
RAISING INDUSTRY HOW THESE COMBINED INTERESTS MAY
BE FURTHER PROMOTED BY CLOSER RELATIONS.
CHAPTER IV 63
GEORGIA PEOPLE BUY COTTON OIL IN PREFERENCE TO HOGS'
LARD THE SUPERIORITY OF COTTON OIL OVER LARD.
THE GREAT
6 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER V 65
A REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
COTTON OIL INDUSTRY NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES A SOUTH-
ERN MONOPOLY-A GROWTH AS SENSATIONAL AS THE CALI-
FORNIA GOLD DISCOVERY OF '49 THE VALUE OF THE BY-
PRODUCTS TO THE SOUTHERN CATTLE RAISER AND DAIRYMAN.
CHAPTER VI 75
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COTTONSEED MILLS COTTONSEED
MEAL. IN DENMARK AND THE UNITED STATES THE HIGH
QUALITY OF AMERICAN COTTONSEED OIL THE VALUE OF
VARIOUS AMERICAN FEED STUFFS, INCLUDING COTTONSEED
MEAL AND RULLS.
CHAPTER VII 79
HOW TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF COTTONSEED RRODUCTS
(ADDRESS BEFORE THE INTERSTATE COTTONSEED CRUSHERS'
ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., MAY
16, 1905) SOME RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY PUBLICITY.
CHAPTER VIII 83
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT COTTONSEED OIL, HOW IT
MASQUERADED UNDER DIFFERENT NAMES IN DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES HOW IT WAS MIXED AND BLENDED WITH OTHER
AND INFERIOR PRODUCTS HOW IT WAS FINALLY PUT ON THE
MARKET UNDER ITS OWN NAME AND TRIUMPHANTLY WON
ON ITS MERITS.
CHAPTER IX 85
A GENERAL REVIEW OF THE COTTON OIL INDUSTRY (ANNUAL
ADDRESS BEFORE THE INTERSTATE COTTONSEED CRUSHERS'
ASSOCIATION, LOUISVILLE, KY., MAY 19, 1908) THE WORK OF
THE INTERSTATE COTTONSEED CRUSHERS' ASSOCIATION FOR
THE YEAR 1908 THE CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE INDUSTRY-
ITS IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES THE CO-OPERATION OF THE
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IN PROMOTING ITS INTERESTS THE
FOREIGN TRADE OLEOMARGARINE GRADING COTTONSEED-
PUBLICITY BUREAU EXHIBITS OF COTTONSEED PRODUCTS.
CHAPTER X 123
A MODEST LITTLE STORY OF A BIG LITTLE SEED A SHORT
SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF COTTON OIL PURITY OF
THE PRODUCT ITS VARIOUS USES ITS BENEFITS TO THE
SOUTHERN COTTON GROWER.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Georgia cotton field, yielding over one bale to the acre .... 17
A modern cotton ginnery at Cartersville, Ga. Capacity 100
to 125 bales daily 21
Cotton ginnery during the busy season 25
Type of modern crude oil mill. The products are crude cot-
tonseed oil; meal, hulls and linters 29
Herd of 30 Jersey cows fed on cottonseed meal. They fur-
nish $100 of cream per week 33
Champion cow of Georgia. Gives annually, butter, 544.3;
milk, 9,252. "PEARL," the best cow in the best herd,
under daily observation, is fed on cottonseed meal to in-
crease her wonderful production 37
Cartoon, "Getting Together" 55
Six horses and a mule, which get a daily ration of cottonseed
meal 59
Colt three hours old. Dam fed on cottonseed meal regularly 61
Car go of cottonseed meal fertilisers on Chattahoochee River. 67
Exterior view of large cotton oil refinery 7 1
Interior view of large cotton oil refinery 73
Interior view of cotton oil hogless lard plant 77
Heart of the American sardine packing industry, where cot-
ton oil is used in packing -fish 107
An English exhibit of cotton oil and hogless lard. Confec-
tioners' Exhibition, London 113
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
THE GREAT COTTONSEED INDUS-
TRY OF THE SOUTH
PREFACE.
The Cotton Oil Industry of the South is unique. It is
unusual and without a parallel. Its progress and develop-
ment has been as brilliant as it has been useful. The field
that it opened for the investment of capital has been a most
attractive one, although it has not always been a profitable
one for the investor. But the opportunities it has afforded
for industrial improvement, thus promoting the general
good of the country, has been unequalled.
The student of political economy is fascinated by the
possibilities of a proposition that, starting out with a raw
material practically without value, converts it, in twenty
years, into products worth one hundred million dollars.
Large sums of money have been necessary to bring about
this condition. A few of the things it has accomplished
has been to increase the transportation business of the
country, the payment of many thousands of dollars in
wages, the employment of thousands of men, the annual
increase of the export business of the United States, the
great financial and economic value to the country of the
production of cotton oil, thus giving to the consumer a
sweet and wholesome product, and supplying a deficiency
in the world's shortage of olive oil and butter, the enrich-
ment of the soil by the use of Cottonseed Meal, a by-product
THE GREAT
10 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
of the seed, the greatly increased development of the dairy
and live-stock interests of the South by the use of the meal
and hulls, the establishment of mattress factories by the use
of the linters, and the erection of plants for the manufac-
ture of machinery used in operating cotton oil mills. While
all of this domestic development has been in progress,
cottonseed products have invaded the great olive groves of
Europe and Asia, competing on equal terms with the
products of the ancient olive, while the chief by-product,
Cottonseed Meal, has been feeding the immense herds of
cattle in Denmark and the dairy herds of England and
Holland. When all of this has been considered the benefits
of this wonderful industry command the attention of the
students of industrial conditions in all countries.
In accomplishing these magnificent results the industry
has been of almost incalculable value to the immediate
section where it has been established. It adds annually
directly to the value of the cotton crop about one hundred
million dollars, with all the incidental advantages that this
direct increase brings with it. It is building packing-
houses and, in time, will make the South the great cattle-
raising section of the Union. The ramifications of this
industry are so varied that they penetrate the fields, the
factories and the homes of the people. Although/its chief
product oil has been listed and traded in onvthe New
York Produce Exchange for a comparatively shorf'time,
the transactions in it now exceed those in lard, which has
held a high place for many years.
Among other industries, therefore, the cotton oil industry
is a strong, lusty and vigorous young giant. Believing that
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 11
OF THE SOUTH
such an industry must be of great interest to the thousands
who have their money invested in it, many of whom know
little of its real importance and progress, as well as to those
other thousands who produce and handle its products, and
to the consumers of these products, I have brought together
in these pages a number of historical and industrial articles
treating on this subject, which were prepared by me during
the last five or six years, together with other information
that has not heretofore been published, and this is sub-
mitted with the hope that it will still further promote the
interests of an industry that is still growing, and upon
whose success depends largely the financial and physical
well being of many thousands of the people of the United
States.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 13
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER I.
THE GREAT COTTONSEED INDUSTRY OF THE SOUTH.
ITS SMALL BEGINNINGS ITS RECENT RAPID DEVELOPMENT
THE SALES OF COTTONSEED OIL IN ALL THE MARKETS OF THE
WORLD THE PIONEERS IN THE BUSINESS THE SENSA-
TIONAL INCREASE IN TRADING IN COTTON OIL ON THE NEW
YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE THE PRODUCTS OF THE CRUDE
COTTONSEED OIL MILLS THE FOREIGN TARIFFS ON COTTON
OIL AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE INDUSTRY THE REFINED
PRODUCTS THE IMPROVEMENT IN REFINING COTTON OIL
AND THE RESULTS EXPORTS THE INTERSTATE COTTON-
SEED CRUSHERS' ASSOCIATION AND ITS POWER IN PRO-
MOTING THE INTERESTS OF THE INDUSTRY A GLANCE AT
THE FUTURE.
Travelers on the Mediterranean Sea, looking across to
the limestone cliffs and hills of Southern Europe and
Northern Africa, are charmed by the white blooms and
grayish green foliage of the olive groves. The olive is sup-
posed to have originated in Syria, the home of the date, the
fig and pomegranate, and gradually extended through
Spain, Italy, France and along the entire Mediterranean
coast. The waters of the Mediterranean, being warmer in
winter and cooler in summer than the air, maintain a
uniformity of temperature favorable to the complete devel-
opment of the olive. The tree is partial to sea breezes, and
this, with the limestone soils, is necessary for the perfection
of the fruit. Its production must, therefore, be confined
THE GREAT
14- COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
largely to sections where such conditions of soil and climate
prevail.
While the olive has been grown to some extent in Cali-
fornia, Mississippi and Georgia, its fullest development in
the United States has been on the California coast, and
even there the output is comparatively small.
As the demand for olive oil and other edible oils in
Europe exceeded the production, it became necessary for
consumers to look elsewhere for an oil equally as good to
supply the shortage. Nature, which never permits a
vacuum in her beneficial scheme of production, has
selected the garden land of America to fill this requirement.
On the eastern slopes of the Allegheny range and in the
southern valley of the Mississippi Elver, with two mighty
ranges of mountains to guard it, and more than three rivers
to water its fields, its temperature equalized by the waters
of the Gulf of Mexico at its feet and the waves of the Atlan-
tic on the east, the Eden of America, whose flaming swords
have all been turned into ploughshares, lies basking in the
brightest sunshine that ever smiled upon this earth.
The delightful climate of the cotton belt of the South
rivals that of Italy, the scenery of the country is as charm-
ing and the cotton plant, with its cream and crimson col-
ored blooms, its pure white fruit and dark green foliage,
yields nothing in point of beauty by comparison with the
olive.
Taken altogether, therefore, it was natural that the
Southern States of the Union should be expected to supply
any deficiencies in the products of other countries so closely
resembling it in natural conditions, and the South is meet-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 15
OF THE SOUTH
ing fully this expectation by the manufacture of its cotton
oil, not only supplying Europe, but the rapidly increasing
domestic demand.
"Dr. Benjamin Waring established the first paper, oil
and grist mills at Columbia, S. C., and expressed from
cottonseed a very good oil.''
This is the brief announcement in Mills' "Statistics of
South Carolina," published in 1826, of the birth of a great
industry in the South. Nothing more is recorded except
that Dr. Waring was "a great encourager of useful arts"
and was State Treasurer. We are, therefore, left to con-
jecture as to other conditions existing at that time or how
much this mill contributed to the future development of the
industry, but we can imagine what might have caused Dr.
Waring to make "a very good oil" from cottonseed and how
he came to do it.
Being a professional man and a scholar he was somewhat
of a dreamer and, of course, a student. He operated a grist
mill located on the Congaree River, on the banks of the
canal that furnished the power to run the mill. He doubt-
less also ran a small cotton gin and in order to get rid of
the seed they were thrown into the canal to be carried off
later by the rise of the river, as they were then without
value, except such as were needed for replanting.
Nearly all great discoveries are made by accident. Dr.
Waring, in an absent-minded way, probably picked up a few
seed and thoughtlessly placed them in his mouth. They
had a rich, nutty flavor and tasted good. This increased
his interest, and he further noted that where the seed had
been trampled on they gave off a rich, golden-yellow oil.
THE GREAT
16 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTB
He concluded that if the flavor of the seed was good the oil,
if properly handled, was valuable. He probably fitted up
a crude hand press, as the Chinese had done two thousand
years before him, and expressed the oil. He was further
convinced of its value, and, in the satisfaction over his
discovery, discussed it with his friends, and Mills recorded
the discovery. Or it is possible that he may have traveled
in England and heard of, or visited, the cotton oil mill of
Foster Brothers at Gloucester that had been there in active
operation for one hundred years before Dr. Waring made
his investigations. But, whatever was the cause of this
early attempt toward the manufacture of cotton oil, it has
been followed by one of the South's most interesting and
most important developments.
Georgia had an oil mill in 1832, but its history is
recorded in about as few words as that of the South Caro-
lina plant.
The commercial importance of the industry had its be-
ginning from 1850 to 1855. It had just begun to attract
attention when its further development was arrested by the
Civil War between the North and South. The pioneers of
the fifties were Pierre Paul Martin, Paul Aldige and Am-
brose A. McGiaBi^ all of New Orleans, La. Immediately
after the war attention was again directed to the business,
and General E. P. Alexander, formerly of Savannah, Ga.,
established a mill at Columbia, S. C., in 1866. Mr. C. E.
Girardey followed with another mill at New Orleans, La.,
in 1868. It was, however, not until about 1880 that the
industry actively attained commercial importance in the
South. It met with one reverse after another until a great
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
majority of the mills were brought under the ownership of
one large company, which, for several years, practically
controlled the output of all of the mills.
Among the leading men of that period were Mr. J. J.
Georgia Cotton Field, Yielding Over One Bale to the Acre.
McCann, of Tennessee; J. F. and M. J. O'Shaughnessy, of
Tennessee; Kobert Gibson, of Texas; George A. Morrison
and K. F. Munro, of New York ; Moses Frank, of Georgia ;
Jo W. Allison, of Texas ; E. M. Durham, of Mississippi ; A.
D. Allen, of Arkansas ; T. E. Chancy, of Connecticut ; J. O.
THE GREAT
If C9TT9NSEE9 IN9U8TRT
*F THE StUTH
Carpenter, of Mississippi; A. E. Thornton, of Georgia, and
George O. Baker, of Alabama.
These men builded well, even better than they knew, and
laid firmly the foundation of the present magnificent
edifice.
In 1887 the Southern Cotton Oil Company entered the
field with mills located in South Carolina, Georgia, Ala-
bama, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. The
establishment of these mills by a company with ample
capital gave new life to the industry. The officers were
Henry C. Butcher, of Philadelphia, president ; John Oliver,
of New York, treasurer ; Fred Oliver, of Charlotte, general
manager, and D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte, chief engineer.
They had associated with them in the South L. W. Haskell,
at Savannah; C. FitzSimons and J. S. Price, at Columbia;
Henry Oliver, at Atlanta; A. C. Landry, at New Orleans;
Alston Boyd, at Memphis; J. J. Culbertson, at Little Rock;
E. W. Thompson and J. W. Black, at Montgomery, and
W. G. Kay, at Houston. Many of these men are actively
engaged in the business at this time.
The industry continued to grow by the establishment of
many smaller mills and at present the number in the
United States exceeds eight hundred, with a capital of over
one hundred million dollars.
There are one hundred and forty-five crude oil mills in
the State of Georgia. Of these, one hundred and seven are
owned by local interests, farmers, bankers and merchants.
The other thirty-eight are controlled by outside capital.
There is, therefore, no monopoly in the business in Georgia,
nor anywhere else in the South. These mills in Georgia
THE GltEAT
C*TT*NSEE9 IN&UST&Y If
#F THE S6UTH
crush about 450,000 to 500,000 tons of seed annually and
produce about 350,000 to 400,000 barrels of crude oil, from
200,000 to 225,000 tons of meal, 125,000 to 150,000 tons
of hulls and 35,000 to 40,000 bales of linters. There are
four refineries in Georgia, two operated by the larger com-
panies and two by the local mills. There are two hogless
lard plants in the State.
Competition between all of these interest* comes in the
purchase of seed and the sale of the by-products meal,
hulls and linters. Georgia refiners must, of course, com-
pete with each other for the crude oil, and with the re-
fineries operated in other parts of the United States, the
packers of the West and European buyers.
Some of the larger companies have established mills for
crushing seed as well as refining the oil, and have thus
become competitors for the raw material, but notwithstand-
ing this competition the small mills, by reason of their
nearness to the cotton fields, are able not only to market
their seed without freights, but can dispose of their by-
products at home, where they are needed by the farmers,
stock-raisers and dairymen, at less expense than their
larger competitors. These advantages will probably be
sufficient to sustain these small mills in any competition
coming from the larger interests, although, on account of
this, the profit of the home mill will be decreased.
Nothing shows more clearly the development of the busi-
ness than the contrast between Dr. Waring's little enter-
prise on the banks of the Congaree River in 1826 and the
following article from the New York Herald of November
12, 1909 :
THE GREAT.
20 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
"Although for many years business on the New York
Produce Exchange has gradually been growing smaller,
there is one department that is growing at a remarkable
rate. That is the cottonseed oil department. The growth
in trading in this commodity has been so great that the
quarters for the traders who specialize in that line are to be
enlarged.
"Cotton oil traders are to have a pit in the center of the
big exchange floor. At present the cotton oil crowd has
a little circle off at one corner of the room, and about a
dozen brokers crowd the limited space. A pit similar to
the pit on the cotton exchange, and as large, is to be pro-
vided for the traders.
"Only a few years ago if two thousand barrels of oil
were traded in it was counted an active day's market. Now
they count it an active market when the sales aggregate
40,000 barrels in a day.
"So important has become the New York cottonseed oil
market that its quotations are accepted all over the world
as a basis for official quotations, and the figures are cabled
to all parts of the world at the close of trading. The tele-
graph companies have established on the Produce Ex-
change permanent offices for the exclusive dissemination of
cottonseed oil news.
" 'There is more than $100,000,000 invested in the cotton-
seed oil industry in this country/ said a leading specialist
yesterday, 'and the commodity is becoming more and more
a vehicle for speculation. I remember when total sales in
the market would not average more than 2,000 barrels a
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 21
OF THE SOUTH
day. Yesterday I sold 10,000 barrels myself and have sold
as high as 20,000 barrels in a day.'
"At present the market is not only very active, but prices
are very high. This is naturally due to the fears of a short
cotton crop as regards new oil, which will actually appear
next month. As for the old crop, it is high because of the
exceptionally fine quality of the oil, the product last year
having been the best in recent years."
What is known as a crude oil mill in America produces
A Modern Cetttn Ginnery at C&rtersville } Ga. Capacity
9aily.
if)
crude cottonseed oil, cottonseed meal, hulls and linters. In
the United States the oil is the most valuable product, and
this commodity gives the mill its name. In England they
are called cake mills, because the cake is more valuable
than the oil, which is inferior to the American oil. The
English mills make the same products, except hulls. In
England the hulls are all ground into the meal, while in
this country they are separated.
THE GREAT
22 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
( The crude oil is sold to the refiners, who convert it into
refined oil. In the process of refining the crude oil the
residue is called "soap stock' 7 and is utilized by the soap
manufacturers throughout the country.
The refined oil enters into the manufacture of such com-
mercial products as salad and cooking oils, hogless lard
and oleomargarine, and is not only used in this country,
but enters into competition throughout the world with olive
oil, butter, lard and similar edible greases.
I The cottonseed meal is the ground cake and is used for
stock feeding, both in this country and abroad and in the
Southern States enters largely into the manufacture of
commercial fertilizers.
1 The lint, which is the short cotton cut from the seed is
used chiefiy in the manufacture of mattresses, pillows,
comforts, quilts and similar articles, and in foreign coun-
tries is converted into gun cotton, known as the highest of
explosives.
I The hulls are used only in the South for stock-feeding,
taking the place of hay, corn, fodder, corn shucks and sim-
ilar products. Experiments already made indicate that
this product will possibly be converted into paper stock,
which will give it a higher value than as a feed stuff.
There is not an article produced by the oil mills that
cannot be used in some form by the grower of the seed, and
just as the values increase so will the value of seed for
milling purposes be enhanced. It is not difficult, therefore,
to point out the close relation existing between the cotton
farmer and the cotton oil^Rills. Their interests are mu-
Uuai and, therefore, the more of these products the farmers
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 23
OF THE SOUTH
consume the better prices they will realize for their surplus
seed that is, the seed not used for planting, and on thej
present value of cottonseed products no seed should be
used for any other purpose than for planting or milling.
There is no outlet for seed that gives them such value as >
the oil mills.
Practically all of the profit earned by the cotton oil mills
is disbursed in the locality where it is made. If there was
nothing else to make the industry popular, this fact alone
should give it a place in the South above all other manu-
facturing estabishments. It is nearer to the farmer than
all other factories. It is now operated almost on the basis
of the local grist mill; it works on toll, returning to the
farmer the products of his seed, after deducting an amount
sufficient to cover the cost of production and a reasonable
profit sometimes no profit at all.
Cottonseed oil has become a staple product in European f
as well as in American markets in fact, it largely regu-
lates all of the markets of the world in competition with
similar products. In all countries its high qualities are
recognized, and in no country is it regarded as having any
rival of equal value, with the possible exception of olive
oil. In comparison with all edible oils it stands at the head. ,
It has spread over Europe, including every olive country
in the Mediterranean basin. It has been the subject of
tariff laws in all of these countries. It has engaged the
attention of the cabinets and governments of France, Aus-
tria, Spain, Italy and Turkey. Eecently it was one of the
articles that threatened to disturb tariff relations between
the United States and Germany and France. When the
THE GREAT
24 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
last tariff bill was passed by the United States the Italian
Ambassador was censured by his countrymen for failing
to protect their interests in this bill by bringing about such
reciprocity as would give the Italian olive growers the favor-
able terms which they thought should have been obtained.
1 In Turkey the olive growers threatened some years ago that
if cotton oil was admitted to that country they would de-
stroy their groves in retaliation for such action by their
I government. This Avas finally adjusted, and cotton oil is
now admitted to the Ottoman empire free of all duties.
Spain excluded it entirely for the protection of their olive
growers and Austria followed. Germany, France and
Italy levied heavy taxes, and even little Servia imposes a
tax of four cents per pound on it, but in spite of all of these
artificial barriers to the sale of cottonseed oil it has moved
steadily forward and captured the world's markets.
The highest and best use of the oil is as an edible product.
When used for cooking it is the best and most economical
of all commodities now used for that purpose, not only
because its market value is less than butter and lard, but
because it will go one-third further than lard and equally
as far as butter.
As late as 1879 the Encyclopedia Britannica did not list
cotton oil as an edible product. Later even than this, a
Western lard manufacturer thought of compounding it
with hogs' lard and was warned that it was unwholesome,
just as some few experts had warned the people regarding
the "love apple," which came afterward to be known as the
lucious and appetizing tomato, and just as some United
States Government experts have warned stock-feeders
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 25
OF THE SOUTH
against the use of cottonseed meal on account of the "toxic"
qualities contained therein, although these same feeders
throughout Europe and America were then fattening whole
herds of cattle on cottonseed meal in England, Holland,
Denmark and on the plains of Texas. The lard manufac-
turer referred to submitted samples of cottonseed oil to the
Cotton Ginnery During the Busy Season.
leading chemists of Europe and America, who pronounced
it not only pure and absolutely free from objectionable mat-
ter, but one of the best of all vegetable oils, and he proceeded
to use the results of his investigations in the manufacture
of his "pure leaf lard," which product became one of the
most popular commodities of its kind under this brand,
and has continued to command satisfactory prices on the
THE GREAT
26 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
market advertised under its own brand as a cottonseed oil
product.
J For many years the refiners were content to use ordinary
methods of refining, which produced an oil which had left
in it an acrid flavor with some other objectionable features
which prevented a general introduction and use of the oil
for edible purposes. Efforts were made to get it into gen-
eral consumption, but after the expenditure of large sums
for advertising, and without materially increasing the de-
mand, the manufacturers found it more profitable to export
the oil to foreign countries, where it was used in blending
with olive oil and in the manufacture of butter, and in large
quantities returned to America under other names, greatly
enhanced in value. At that time about two-thirds of the
oil was exported. At present only about one-third of the
oil is sent to foreign countries.
/ The discovery of the Wesson process of refining cotton
oil, by which the product was put on the market in a con-
dition of absolute purity and flavor, gave a tremendous
impetus to the use of the oil in America, as it not only
proved a thoroughly wholesome product, but stimulated
the other manufacturers generally to the production of bet-
ter oils than they had previously produced. The bakers
were, perhaps, the first to acknowledge its value from an
economical standpoint. They were followed, naturally, by
the housekeepers and hotels of the country, and at present
the Wesson brand is the standard of excellence for all cot-
ton oil, and is almost as well known to the hotels, bakers
and households as flour, hogs' lard and butter.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 27
OF THE SOUTH
Some people still buy "pure olive oil" for salad purposes
and honestly believe that it is superior to cotton oil.
"Pure olive oil" is not much more than a catch word,
although, of course, the article may be entirely olive oil.
Much of the olive oil used locally in those countries where
it is produced for cooking purposes is so rank in flavor that
an American consumer would not touch it, nor an Amer-
ican stomach stand it. In many of those countries the
farmers carry the olives to the mills, simply have the oil
expressed and then put up in bladders. This is one kind
of "pure olive oil."
Why should any cotton grower use olive oil either for
salad or cooking purposes \vhen he can get cotton oil made
from his own seed that is just as pure, just as palatable and
in many cases more digestible than olive oil? Why should
any cotton farmer buy Western lard instead of hogless lard
or cotton oil and pay just as much for it per pound as he
pays for the Southern products which are just as much
his own products as the meal ground at the grist mills from
his own corn?
In European countries the best grade of cotton oil is j
used for salad and cooking, also in the manufacture of *
various kinds of butter compounds, called oleomargarine, .
etc. In those countries the use of cotton oil in this way is
encouraged by the governments because butter has become
so scarce that people of ordinary means are unable to use it
and desire something at lower prices of as good quality as
butter, and oleomargarine answers every purpose for which
butter is used.
The composition of this product is about sixty per cent.
THE GREAT
28 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
of fresh, sweet milk, about twenty-five per cent, of high-
grade cotton oil and fifteen per cent, of oleo stearine. The
formulas and percentages of each ingredient vary in differ-
ent sections, but these proportions represent the average.
Oleo stearine is manufactured from the choicest of beef
fats, thoroughly inspected by the government before it is
used in the manufacture of oleomargarine. It is used only
to give the mixture the consistency of butter. While other
governments, just as careful about the health of their
people as our own government, encourage the manufacture
of this product, our government levies a tax on oleomar-
\ garine of two cents per pound if uncolored and ten cents
per pound if colored.
I Butter manufacturers use a harmless coloring matter,
and oleomargarine manufacturers would do so if permitted,
simply to improve the appearance of the product and cater
to the prejudice of consumers, who prefer the golden-yellow
color, both in oleomargarine and in butter, to the white
product,
f In Denmark the people last year used over 60,000,000
pounds of oleomargarine. The population of that country
is only 2,000,000, so that the consumption really meant over
thirty pounds per capita. On the same basis the American
people would consume 3,000,000,000 pounds per annum,
and the oil needed for this production would amount to
over 2,300,000 barrels, possibly two-thirds of the produc-
tion of cotton oil in this country.
In 1880 about 130,000 barrels of oil were exported to
European countries and only about 20,000 barrels used in
the United States. The oil is now exported to almost every
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 29
0^ THE SOUTH
civilized country. The last Treasury statistics report, end-
ing February 23, shows shipments of from three barrels to
Port Maria, Jamaica, to 51,137 barrels to Rotterdam, Hol-
land. The average annual exports is about 1,000,000 bar-
rels, with an average value of about $16,000,000. The oil
is in general use throughout the entire Mediterranean
Type of Modern Crude til Mill. The Products Are Crude Cot-
tonseed Oil, Meal, Hulls and Linters.
basin the home of the olive oil. The bulk of the ship-;
ments go to England, Holland, Germany, France and Italy 1
The value of the exports from September 1 to February
24 amounted to about |6,000,000. Heavy tariffs levied by;
the governments of Germany, Italy, France and Austria,
together with the substitution of other vegetable oils for '
cotton oil, have considerably reduced exports from this
country, but the decrease of the use of the oil in other '
r,
THE GREAT
30 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
countries has been made up by its domestic use. The total
production for the year 1909-1910 is estimated at around
3,000,000 barrels, of which fully 2,000,000 barrels will be
used at home. This remarkable increase, both in the pro-
duction and consumption, has been due to the recognition
of the high value of the product both in this country and
Europe.
Next to oil, cottonseed meal is the most important article
of the mills. Its best use is in feeding horses, cattle, sheep
and hogs, but considerable quantities of it are still used as
an ammoniate in commercial fertilizers. In addition to
the amount consumed at home the exports of cottonseed
meal for the year ending June 30, 1909, was over 600,000
tons, valued at about $16,000,000. The bulk of these ship-
ments have gone to Denmark, Germany, Holland, Norway,
England, Scotland and France. Denmark alone took over
200,000 tons and Germany nearly as much. All of the
ineal shipped to these foreign countries is used for stock
feeding. Danish bacon is famous all over Europe, and it
iV said that the hogs from which this bacon is raised are fat-
tened on cottonseed meal.
Linters are not classified in the Treasury Department
statistics and, consequently, no estimate of the value of this
product can be made.
The total annual value of the exports of all cottonseed
products averages about $30,000,000.
The late Colonel George W. Scott, of Decatur, Ga., was
the pioneer in the use of cottonseed meal as an ammoniate
for commercial fertilizers. His great success in its use
was quickly adopted by other manufacturers, and at the
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 31
OF THE SOUTH
present time this product is used extensively for this pur-
pose. A large number of mills have fertilizer factories in
connection with their oil mills. On account of their loca-
tion the local mills are able to deliver to the farmers
promptly the fertilizers as needed, and, having the meal as
one of their raw materials on hand, they are able to manu-
facture at a very reasonable cost. Popularity and value of
meal goods is now well known to all of the cotton farmers.
They are directly interested in its use because it gives a
greater value to the seed.
I The history of the njnj^o^is of the cotton oil industry is
he history of the Interstate Cottonseed Crushers' Asso-
ciation, which was organized in Nashville, Tenn., in July,
1897. The officers and members of this association are
engaged in the manufacture of cottonseed products and
personally interested in the success of the business. They
loyally, diligently and successfully devoted their time, their
intelligence and their energy to the promotion of the in-
dustry, in which not only they were personally interested,
but the interests of the farmers of the South were involved.
Membership in this association is the standard by which
men engaged in the industry are measured. Kecognizing
that publicity is the best method for promoting the success
of any product worthy of recognition the association
created a bureau for the purpose of showing the "Man from
Missouri," as well as the man from everywhere, the value
of cottonseed products. In addition to informing our own
people on this subject the Bureau of Publicity desired to
reach the world at large. With the active assistance and
encouragement of similar State organizations and of the
THE GREAT
32 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
State Department at Washington and the Department of
Commerce and Labor, under the immediate supervision of
Hon. John M. Carson, chief of the Bureau of Manufactures,
a special agent, representing cottonseed products, was sent
to all parts of Europe to study the conditions affecting
these products. The United States consuls in all parts of
the world were instructed to make similar investigations
and report fully. This has been done for about three years,
and the results have been eminently successful and satis-
factory.
The publication of the reports from the special agents
and consular officers in American newspapers, trade jour-
nals and periodicals has intensified the interest in the
American product and it has been followed by a greatly in-
creased demand for it in America. So greatly has the do-
mestic demand increased that the European dealers, finding
the price so high in America as to make its use almost
prohibitive to them, have been scouring Europe to find
some substitute for it. The reports of trade journals and
consular reports clearly show that these substitutes are
compared with cotton oil as the standard before being
accepted. The exports this year hardly exceed one-third of
last year at the same time, but the increased demand for the
oil in the United States has taken all the surplus heretofore
exported.
Favorable responses to the publicity work of the asso-
ciation came much more quickly from the foreigners than
from our own people, especially our farmers, who are more
vitally interested than the people of any other country, and
while the farmers are showing much more interest than
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 33
OF THE SOUTH
formerly, many of them still do not fully recognize the
superiority of cottonseed products over all competing com-
modities. Some of them still believe that olive oil is better
for salads and cooking, because they have believed it all of
their lives, and some of them seem to think that hogs' lard
is as good as hogless lard. Time, however, will correct all
of this at home. The recognition of the full value of cotton
oil and its products is fast coming, if it has not already
arrived. There is, however, a more serious condition re-
Herd of Thirty Jersey Cows Fed on Cottonseed Meal. They
Furnish $100 of Cream Per Week.
garding the by-products cottonseed meal and hulls.
While these products are very generally used by our dairy-
men and stockmen, some of them continue to use corn and
oats and mixed Western feeds for stock feed, allowing
New England and Europe to haul away the meal and hulls
from their very doors. Some farmers continue to use blood
and other animal ammoniates in their fertilizers, ordered
from Western slaughter-houses, instead of using cottonseed /
meal- the best ammoiiiate in the world. They do not seem
to realize that this is a most wasteful method. Those
farmers who do this are acting contrary to their own inter-
THE GREAT
34 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
ests, directly and indirectly. By their failure to co-operate
with the oil mills they are depreciating the value of their
cottonseed. Such a policy is unwise and wasteful. The
mills can stand it better than the farmers, because the peo-
ple of every other country need and take the meal. Our
farmers possibly do not understand that there is not a
farm of seventy-five acres in Georgia that cannot raise some
beef cattle, practically without cost, as the droppings from
cattle fed on cottonseed meal and hulls, properly cared for,
is worth as much as the meal and hulls are as a fertilizer
before being fed. If a general policy of feeding some cattle
on every farm was adopted by our farmers it would lead to
the establishment of packing-houses, and this would make
the South the great live stock section of America. Instead
of bringing into Georgia about $750,000 worth of beef every
week, and sending that much money out of Georgia, as one
packer has recently stated : Georgia would be shipping beef
to other States and bringing into the State an equal amount
or more money than they are now sending away. The
benefit of the change is easily understood.
Dr. A. M. Soule, president of the Georgia College of Agri-
culture, in an address recently delivered at Macon, shows
that by the use of cottonseed meal as a feed for mules the
farmers of Georgia can raise as fine mules as the West at
a cost of about $60, instead of $160, average cost per head of
Western stock. Judge Henry C. Hammond, of Augusta,
has shown by his own personal experience of years that
horses as work stock can be economically and successfully
raised and worked on cottonseed meal feed.
Opportunities on these lines are almost limitless and in
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 35
OF THE SOUTH
time will be fully utilized, but every day that this is post-
poned is deferring the further and greater and general _
prosperity of this section.
At the annual meeting of the Interstate Cottonseed
Crushers' Association in Louisville, Ky., in May, 1908, the
president of the association cited the reports of consular
officers and special agents showing the great interest inl
cotton oil in foreign countries and America and, based on\
these reports, predicted a shortage in vegetable oils, and
consequently the high prices that would follow. The
cotton oil interests of the South realized this year the
soundness of the prediction: the shortage developed and
the high prices followed the highest for cotton oil ever
known. It is safe to say that nothing less than a financial
panic can bring about much lower prices in years to come.
The population of the world is increasing, while the pro-
duction of vegetable oils shows no appreciable increase, ani
new uses are being found for all of these oils. A butl
shortage, almost a famine; already exists, and it is said thj
in some parts of Europe the people have not seen real butl
in twenty years. Oleomargarine, composed largely of
cotton oil, has satisfactorily supplanted it. The demand
for this commodity is constantly increasing, necessitating
a greater consumption of cotton oil. Hogless lard com-*"*'
pounds are more generally used every year and cotton/
oil is the largest factor in the manufacture of this product,
while the demand for the oil itself is constantly increasing.
There is nothing in present conditions to indicate that \
cotton oil will ever reach the former low levels of prices.
In answer to questions from an old Confederate veteran
THE GREAT
36 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
at Mount Airy, Ga., I told hi in how we now made cotton oil
that fed the people in place of butter and lard ; cottonseed
meal that was now used in making bread, taking the place
of wheat and corn bread, and how this commodity further
supported and fattened horses, mules, cattle and hogs, fer-
tilized ihe land and made big crops of all kinds; linters
that were used in the manufacture of quilts, mattresses,
pillows and paper, as well as gun cotton, and hulls that
took the place in feeding cattle of timothy hay, corn fodder,
shucks and all other roughage. As I continued to enumer-
ate these products and their use, the old soldier jumped to
his feet and said : "If we had had oil mills during the war
the Yankees could never have whipped us." After cooling
down a litle he added: "You know the Yanks never did
whip us, they just starved us out, and they could never have
done this If we had had oil mills," and the old hero almost
wept over the neglected opportunities.
It is not at all likely that the question of "whipping the
Yanks" will ever come up for consideration again, but the
veteran's view of the possibilities of cottonseed products
was not overrated.
The farmer in selling his seed, the mills in crushing them,
the refiners in putting the oil in marketable condition, the
brokers who have handled the product and the trade jour-
nals which have advertised them have all done their part in
the development of this great industry. If they would all
pull together, the farmer using the mills- products more
extensively, the crude mill recognizing its dependence upon
the farmer for its seed, the refiner dealing liberally with
the crude mill for his oil, the brokers increasing, so far as
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
37
possible, the value of the products and the trade journals
continuing to do their splendid part in the work, the money
*
value of the product of this industry would be greatly
Champion Cow of Georgia. Gives Annually, Butter 544-3, Milk
9,252. "Pearl" the Best Cozv in the Best Herd, Under
Daily Observation, is fed on Cottonseed Meal
to Increase Her Wonderful Production.
enhanced, and it is not impossible, if this is done, that we
may soon be able to report, as an accomplished fact, that
the value of the seed is equal to the value of the cotton
itself.
THE GREAT
38 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER II.
COTTONSEED AND COTTONSEED PRODUCTS.
(Address before the Cotton School of the University of
Georgia, Athens, Ga., January, 1908.)
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE FARMER AND THE OIL MILLS-
HOW EACH IS BENEFITTED BY AND DEPENDENT UPON THE
OTHER THE PRODUCTS MADE FROM COTTONSEED AND
HOW, BY THE MANUFACTURE OF THESE PRODUCTS, THE
MILLS HAVE GREATLY INCREASED THE VALUE OF THE
COTTON CROP.
I read a story some time since about a man who said lie
was going out to give his friends some good advice about
their business. He returned very shortly and, on being
asked whether or not he had carried out his intentions, he
said he had not, because as soon as he undertook to tell
his friends something about their business they tried to
advise him about his business, and that was one thing he
would not allow anybody to do. I don't want you to think
I am advising you entirely about your business, because in
the proposition I am expected to discuss I am almost as
much interested as you are.
You have been told, and will be told by others, all about
the selection of seed for planting and the advantages to
you in doing this from an increased yield of the fibre. My
part of the program in this respect is to tell you how you
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 39
OF THE SOUTH
may benefit by a better selection and handling of the seed
by increasing the value of the seed itself and to explain^
to you how the oil mills will be benefited by such action
on your part.
If 1 was asked broadly to state how this result may be
accomplished quickest I would answer : First, plant better
seed and take better care of them, and, second, buy more of i
the products of the oil mills.
If you want to get more money for your seed you must
furnish the mills better seed and you must consume as
much of their product as possible, which will increase the
value of the products and, necessarily, enhance the value of
the seed.
When George Francis Train was asked how Kansas City
could become as large a pork-packing center as Chicago, he
answered, "Kill more pigs." On the same line, to get
better prices you must furnish better seed and you must
buy more of the products of the seed.
In a report of the Department of Commerce and Labor,
1906, published under the direction of the Director of the
Census, it is stated :
"Possibly the most difficult problem in connection with
the cottonseed products industry is the proper storing and
preservation of these seed. The lint is almost waterproofs*
and is but little injured in passing from the field to the
factory, but not so with the seed, which is very easily
injured and reaches the mill in much worse condition rela-
tively than the lint. In wet seasons this depreciation
amounts to a large percentage of the value of the seed, and
the products from such damaged seed must be sold for very
THE GREAT
40 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
inferior uses. The value of the oil shipped depends upon
the condition of the seed when it reaches the mill. Evi-
dently the products manufactured from cottonseed would
be more useful and valuable if they were carefully handled
and the good and bad seed kept separate. To accomplish
this the co-operation of the grower, ginner and miller is
required."
A seed crop worth one hundred million dollars to the
South, and which if it were all converted into cottonseed
products would add more than another hundred million
dollars to the value of the manufactured products of the
South, is worth saving and is worth your most serious con-
sideration.
r The establishment of oil mills in Georgia has made the
value of your seed crop this year equal to the cost of all .the
commercial fertilizers used by you under all of the crops
planted in Georgia of every kind and character, while the
excess over the cost of fertilizers will pay the cost of gin-
i ning and packing the cotton crop ; or the value of the seed
crop will pay all the cost of picking your cotton and gin-
/ ning it, including the cost of the bagging ; or it will pay the
cost of the fertilizer and the ginning and packing of the
cotton crop of the State. The mills further add to this
magnificent sum by converting the seed into edible oil rival-
ing the famous olive oil of Europe; and by transforming
this oil into products as useful and more wholesome than
any animal fat, and still further increase these values by
manufacturing from the seed a stock food exceeding in
feeding value all other known feeding materials.
They also encourage the dairy interests of the South and
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 41
OF THE SOUTH
will eventual y create a great cattle industry, followed by
the establishment of packing-houses.
Does not this increase in value of Georgia productions
and the uses to which these products are put convince you
of the great waste of wealth when any of the seed not
needed for planting are used for any other purpose than
milling? And does it not further convince you that you
should co-operate with the mills in improving the quality
of rhe seed by better care and handling and by using exten-
sively the products from the seed ?
When you are tempted to use cotonseed for feeding stock
or for fertilizing the land you should remember that in
every bushel of seed used you are absolutely throwing away
about two-thirds of a gallon of the best oil known to the
woi^ld. When you feed seed to cattle, even the finest Jersey
ever bred, it is like "casting pearls before swine." Fertiliz-
ing the land with it no crop ever grown not even our
"King Cotton," or his royal brother, held sacred and wor-
shipped by the Hindus would countenance, because of the
wanton waste of such splendid material.
Mr. Edward Lehman Johnson, of Memphis, Tenn., who
has had many years of experience in operating oil mills
and who is a well known writer on this subject, estimates
that the damage to the cottonseed crop of the South an-
nally is about ten million dollars, due almost entirely,
except in very bad seasons, to the careless and negligent
methods of handling these seeds at the ginneries and on the
farms.
If the mills should use some of the seed shipped them in
making oil this oil would have no better flavor or taste
THE GREAT
42 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
than the olive oil made from fruit that matures early and
drops from the trees, and which a writer describes as "de-
testable."
The average seed received from the mills is of almost
every known variety and contains a certain amount of
immature bolls, trash and other foreign matter. Our
Athens manager once sent me several rifle cartridges taken
from the seed by the cleaning machinery. Improved clean-
ing machinery extracts from the seed a large amount of
similar substances, including nails, bolts, screws, keys and
rocks. All this adds to the weight of the seed and costs
the mill as much money as the seed itself, but does not
yield oil or meal and, consequently, is valueless to the mills
Hundreds of tons of seed are lost every year by the
loose way in which seed are scattered around the ginneries
and seed houses. Claims for shortage in weights are often
made on the mills by shippers who waste the seed in this
manner. Sometimes the farmers who haul the seed to the
mill and the shippers mix the good seed with the bad; the
mills, of course, grade all such seed as bad, as the products
from such seed can only be used for such purposes as in-
ferior seed will produce. A small amount of such off-
quality seed depreciates the entire shipment.
At a meeting of the Interstate Cottonseed Crushers' Asso-
ciation, held in Atlanta about two years ago, Mr. E. Van
Winkle, of Atlanta, a well-known manufacturer of oil mill
machinery, suggested to the convention that a standard for
seed should be established and all shipments graded on the
same plan as wheat, corn, oats and other grains then desig-
nated and that all shipments should be graded up or down
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 43
OF THE SOUTH
from this standard. Certainly, such a plan would be fair
and just to all parties. But nothing was done at that time,
as it was thought best to interest the farmers themselves in
this matter. If you farmers will consider and discuss it in
your various organizations you will bring about an im-
provement much quicker than it is possible for the mills
to accomplish.
The invisible loss in milling cottonseed varies from five
to ten per cent., clue very largely to the quality of the seed
and the foreign substances mixed with it. Even when all
the seed are sound some are not fully matured and also
contain a large percentage of motes, bolls, trash, etc., which
have to be separated from the seed before the seed are
crushed, and is a total loss to the mills. This waste costs \
the mills as much money as the perfect seed.
So far as I know, there has never been any investigation
to determine the effect of soil, climate, fertilization or culti-
vation on the value of cottonseed for milling purposes.
Doubtless this Avill come with the progress of the cotton oil
industry. In the meantime, the mills have been governed
in their estimate of the value of the seed by the different^
varieties grown and by the results of chemical analyses of
such varieties and the actual yield of products obtained
in milling. In referring to analyses you must bear in
mind that the chemist uses only one hundred seed in
making each test, and that there is over six million in a
ton, consequently, analyses are only approximately correct
and answer only for comparisons.
These analytical and practical tests of seed have shown (
that the black varieties, practically free from fiber, give
r
THE GREAT
44 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
the highest yield of oil and meal. This larger percentage
of oil is due to some extent to the fact that the seed do
not contain any lint and are almost entirely free from any
foreign matter.
The green seed show by analyses and tests as second in
T alue to the black seed for milling purposes, and the white
varieties give the lowest results in yields of products.
The quantity of oil available by the best milling
processes is only about eighty per cent, of the quantity
shown by analyses to be in the seed, while ordinary milling
processes produced even smaller yield. This must be con-
sidered in connection with the analyses.
This is a sample of Sea Island seed, used in Georgia by the
coast mills in the section where this variety is grown.
These seed contain by analysis about twenty-two and one-
half per cent, oil, about thirty per cent, of protein, or about
6 per cent, ammonia.
This is a sample of what is known as the Peterkin, a
hybrid black variety, almost entirely free from fiber.
These seed are now grown in all parts of the State and
almost every shipment contains some of them. In some
sections of the State a very large percentage of the total
receipts at the mills are of this variety. Analyses show
that they contain about twenty-two and one-half per cent,
of oil and about twenty-one per cent, of protein, or four per
cent, ammonia.
This is a typical sample of green seed and contains about
twenty-two and one-half per cent, of oil and about eighteen
per cent, of protein or eight and one-half per cent, of
ammonia.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 45
OF THE SOUTH
This sample represents the best type of the white variety,
planted most extensively in Georgia. It contains only
about eighteen and three-quarters per cent, of oil and
seventeen and one-half per cent, of protein, or three and
one-quarter per cent, ammonia.
None of the varieties, except Sea Island come to the mills
free from trash.
This type represents an average sample as the seed are
received at the mills. They are mixed with all varieties,
consequently sometimes show a larger amount of oil than
white seed because of the large percentage of black and
green varieties mixed with them. Average seed like these
will show about twenty-one per cent, of oil, eighteen per
cent, protein, or three and one-half per cent, ammonia after
being cleaned of trash and foreign substances.
Some recent examinations of seed representing samples
from all parts of the State show about thirteen per cent,
black, about sixty-nine per cent, white and eighteen per
cent, green.
These comments on the different varieties are based on
good, sound, dry seed. Slightly damaged seed sometimes
contain as large a percentage of the niotes arid kernels as
sound seed, but if badly damaged the kernels will weigh
only a small proportion of the amount of the kernels in
sound seed ; but in both cases the oil is unfit for use except
in the soap kettle, and the meal is fit only for fertilizer
purposes.
This is a sample of trash, etc.. separated from the seed
before milling.
I show you here a sample of sound and damaged seed
THE GREAT
46 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
and of prime oil and meal made from the good seed and
similar samples of oil and meal made from damaged seed.
You can readily see the difference.
The refining loss on oil made from good, sweet seed is
* usually between five and six per cent. On oil made from
damaged seed this loss will run from ten to thirty per cent.,
or even higher, showing the annual loss to the mills from
seed not carefully handled. The oil made from sweet seed
is a perfectly edible product; Avhen made from damaged
seed its color and flavor are depreciated and it is used only
for inferior purposes.
The damage to seed results from excessive moisture and
from exposure to the weather of the seed cotton or the seed,
and from germination when stored in houses where the heat
from large piles of seed produces germination. Sometimes
in parts of the State cotton is picked and piled in the fields
and then left for days and even Aveeks during the rainy
weather. Consequently, th'e mills in that section rarely
ever make prime oil. Of course, the seed heat and are
often badly damaged before the cotton is ginned. In a
recent investigation I found that in one section of the
State, where the conditions mentioned prevail, over thirty
per cent, of the seed w r ere badly damaged and all of them
more or less damaged, while the average amount of damage
for the entire State did not exceed six per cent,
To prevent damage to seed requires only the exercise of
ordinary business intelligence. The seed cotton should
never be allowed to lie out in the field. If the farmer is not
prepared to gin it when picked he should at least not allow
it to be exposed to the weather. But if the seed cotton is
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 47
OF THE SOUTH
stored under shelter the pile should be opened often and
exposed to sunlight in order that the moisure may be dried
out. This is especialiy true of the early picked cotton, bufr
really applies to all. The seed should never be stored in
great piles in warm houses when moisture is created ana,
heating and damage follow, and, of course, they should
never be left without shelter in rainy weather. Whenever
stored they should be opened to the sunlight often. A few
simple precautions of this sort would result in the saving
of thousands of tons of seed that are wasted every year. I
think some of my farmer friends may say that such seed are
not wasted because they are used for fertilizer, but in com-
parison to the value of the seed for milling purposes I must
contend that they are wasted. In some parts of the South
where they do not use fertilizers the damaged seed are en-
tirely and absolutely wasted.
In order to impress upon you the necessity for properly
handling your cottonseed, in your interest as well as that
of the oil mills, and to give you some idea of the importance
of the great cottonseed crushing industry, I will show you
samples of the products that are made from the seed.
To convert the seed into these products over one hun- \
dred million dollars is invested in the United States alone,
in over eight hundred establishments, employing possibly
forty thousand men; these various establishments are
located in all parts of the Union, and many others in various t
parts of the European countries. These industries have
increased the foreign trade of the United States over thirty
million dollars annually, by the export of cottonseed prod-
i
ucts, adding to the golden stream constantly crossing, the
THE GREAT
48 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
waters to move the cotton crop of the South, thus aiding
/4nd keeping the balance of trade between the United States
/and Europe in favor of our country, which last year ex-
/ ceeded half a billion dollars. To these magnificent results
you farmers of the South are contributing enormously, in-
asmuch as the value of your cotton crop alone is equal to
the balance of trade in favor of the United States.
Beginning with what is known as crude mill products we
nave crude oil, prime quality, made from prime seed; crude
/ oil, off quality, made from off-quality seed; cottonseed
meai, made from prime seed ; cottonseed meal, made from
off-quality or damaged seed; cottonseed hulls; cottonseed
li liters.
You will note the difference between the prime and off-
quality in these products, due to the quality of the seed
from which they are produced.
This crude oil when of sufficiently high quality is con-
verted into edible oils after undergoing refining processes.
I
The off oil is likewise refined, but is used for other than
edible purposes. The cottonseed meal, as you all know, is
used for stock feed and for mixing with fertilizers. Cotton-
seed hulls are also used for stock feed. It has been demon-
Strated, too, that these hulls can be converted into a pulp
or the manufacture of rough paper. The linters are used
n the manufacture of mattresses, quilts, pillows and va-
rious other purposes for which short fibre may be utilized.
I also call to your attention this sample of commercial
* fertilizer ammoniated with cottonseed meal. I have also
here type samples of mattresses, quilts, etc., manufactured
/ from linters. An important use made of linters is in the
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 49
OF THE SOUTH
manufacture of gun cotton, a highly explosive substance
used for all purposes where explosives are needed.
Going back to the uses for prime crude oil, I wish to ex-
plain to you that this is refined into what is known as prime
summer yellow oil, like this sample. In the refining pro-f
cess the refuse is known as "soap stock," like this sample
and which is used in the manufacture of both toilet and'
laundry soaps. The prime summer yellow oil itself, which '
can only be made from good seed, is then converted into va-
rious edible products, samples of which I will show you as
follows: Salad oil, cooking oil. lard compounds, and but-)
terine and oleomargarine, which, as you will observe, are(
most excellent substitutes for butter.
In the highest grades of what are known to the trade as
lard compounds, about 'ninety-nine per cent, of the com-
pound is pure cottonseed oil, the balance is usually oleo
stearine, or beef tallow. A new use for the highest grade re/
fined oils is in ice cream. I am sorry conditions prevent my
showing you a sample of that, but it has been successfully
and satisfactorily used for this purpose. The soap stock isj
used, as previously explained, in the manufacture of toilet*
and laundi^y soap, such as these samples.
The best grade of cottonseed oil is now used also for me- .
dicinal purposes, thus giving to it the highest possible in-
dorsement. Dr. George Brown, of Atlanta, has manufac-
tured and placed on the market an emulsion of cottonseed (
oil, like this sample, which is used as a substitute for cod-
liver oil. He assured me that it is far superior to codliver
oil in the treatment of cases wherever that oil has been
used. He states that the majority of people who need cod-
THE GREAT
50 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
liver oil most are unable to take it because they could not
digest it, besides, the taste and flavor are objectionable,
which is not the case with cottonseed oil, which is palat-
able. He says he has never yet seen a patient whose
stomach was so delicate that he could not thoroughly digest
cottonseed oil.
In order to give you a further idea of the quality of the
products made from the seed, I show you here a sample of
high-grade cottonseed oil and alongside of it a sample of
absolutely pure olive oil, which the world has for genera-
tions considered the best of edible oils. This grade of
cottonseed oil is equally as good as any olive oil, only we
have not idealized it as the growers of olive oil have done.
Olive oil, therefore, is preferred by some people only be-
cause of its longer use and because in certain countries
consumers have become more accustomed to it.
It is almost impossible to detect the difference. So gen-
erally was cottonseed oil accepted as olive oil that some
years ago it was reported that the olive growers of Califor-
nia petitioned Congress, or through their representative,
endeavored to pass a law taxing cottonseed oil heavily for
the protection of the olive growers, and it was stated that
one of the reasons given for this was that consumers were
becoming so accustomed to the taste and flavor of cotton-
seed oil that in a few years olive oil would be considered
adulterated.
Recently the Olive Growers' Association of California
published a vicious attack on cottonseed oil. Sam Jones
used to say that it was the "hit dog that howled." The
animus of the California publication shows that somebody
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 51
OF THE SOUTH
has been hit and hit hard ; and it also shows that the manu-
facturers of cottonseed oil must expect these sort of at-_
tacks and must hold up the product to its present high
standard. The farmers can greatly help in this work by
more careful handling of the seed, which insures to the con-
sumer of oil a perfect product.
In order that you may appreciate the production of cot-
tonseed oil in comparison with other edible oils with which
it competes, I will state that although the olive groves have
existed since the time when the "mind of man runneth not
to the contrary" while the manufacture of cottonseed oil|V
is scarcely a generation old it now about equals the pro-
duction of olive oil, amounting to probably three million
barrels annually. The ground-nut, or, as we say in Georgia,
"goober," production of oil averages about 250,000 barrels \
annually, and the Sesame yield about 225,000. In Spain
the average yield of oil per acre is about twenty gallons.
While the total olive crop of Europe is about the same as ^
the cottonseed oil crop, the olive crop as well as the other
seed and nut crops, are about the same amount every year,
showing very little increase. But even without an increase(
in the acreage in cotton the prodiTction of cottonseed oil
can be considerably increased by better selection of plant-
ing seed and better care in the handling of the seed.
In producing the cotton crop the Southern farmer f
grows on the same land about half as much oil as the Span- (
ish olive grower and has, in addition, produced from the
seed three other important products, all having valuable
uses, viz., meal, hulls and linters. The value of the seed '
and products of cottonseed per acre is about equal to the
THE GREAT
52 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
, value per acre of the olive crop. The mills have, therefore,
taken a by-product of cotton and with it alone increased the
productive capacity of the cotton lands in the South by as
much as the total productive capacity of the olive groves.
It may interest you to know that during the worst part of
the recent financial panic when European exchange even
for cotton shipments, could not be negotiated, that the
European buyers of cottonseed oil offered to send over
gold to purchase seed with which to make the oil for their
use. It would be difficult to find a higher estimate of the
value of any product than this.
Negotiations are now pending between France and the
United States by which this country abates a part of its
duty on champagne in consideration of an abatement by
France of its maximum duties on cottonseed oil. This
shows the high value placed on cottonseed by France, and
incidentally, is interesting to Georgians in these prohibi-
tion da#s.
^To^urther develop the crude cottonseed oil industry it is
'necessary for the mills to have the strongest possible co-
operation of the farmers and producers of the seed. The
margin of profit to the crude oil mill is very small. This
can only be increased as higher values obtain for cottonseed
products, when our own people, and especially our farmers,
purchase and use more extensively the products of the
crude mill. If they will do this they will put the crude oil
mills on a solid financial foundation and at the same time
greatly benefit themselves, not only by enabling the mills to
pay higher prices for seed, but by getting better products
than they are now doing. This consumption has greatly
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 53
OF THE SOUTH
increased within the last few years, but there is room for
further increase, and with the assistance of the farmers
who produce the seed the crude mills will be largely inde-
pendent of speculative markets for oil which tend to the
depreciation of this most valuable product.
You have been told time and again about the magnifi-
cence of the cotton crop and will be told again, but no mat-
ter how often the same old story is told it is as true as the
first time it was stated.
When five hundred pounds of wheat crosses the water it I
sends back to America only about ten dollars in gold. But/
whenever five hundred pounds of cotton crosses the ocean
it sends back to us about sixty dollars of European gold/
It is not surprising, therefore, that when the business men
and manufacturers of the country needed gold so badly in
the decent panic they kept insisting that financial condi-
tions Avould not improve until cotton moved.
You clothe with cotton a greater part of the world's pop-
ulation than is clothed with any other fibre, and with your
cottonseed products you are contributing largely to the
support of the population.
The manufacturers of automobiles have shown you how \
to make horseless carriages and I have endeavored to show
you how to make edible oil without olives; medicinal oil j
without codfish ; butter without cows ; ice cream without
cream; lard without hogs; fertilizers without blood; mat-
tresses without hair; stock feed without corn or oats and
explosives without powder, and this has all been done by
producing as good or better articles than the originals, and
it has all been accomplished with the little seed grown by
you on the hillsides and in the valleys of old Georgia.
THE GREAT
54 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER III.
THE DAIRY AND OIL MILL INTERESTS.
(Address before the Georgia Dairy Association, Griffin,
Ga.)
HOW THE OIL MILL HAS BENEFITTED THE DAIRY INTERESTS
AND CATTLE RAISING INDUSTRY HOW THESE COMBINED
INTERESTS MAY BE FURTHER PROMOTED BY CLOSER RE-
LATIONS.
My friend, Professor Willoughby, invited me to talk to
you not longer than twenty minutes on the subject "The Re-
lations of Livestock Owners and Dairymen to Oil Mills."
I could talk to you twenty days on the oil mill end of the
proposition, but if confined to livestock and dairying I am
sure I could tell you all I know in twenty seconds.
1 belong to that crowd described by Colonel Starke, of
Mississippi, as being "too poor to keep a cow and too proud
to milk a goat." The nearest I ever came to being a stock
raiser or dairyman was when I used to hold the calf off for
some one else to do the milking, and then the calf didn't
seem to think that I was doing much toward his raising.
But this has been so many years ago that I have almost
forgotten what a cow looks like.
Most, if not all, of you livestock breeders and dairymen
are farmers also. Perhaps I know just a little more about
farming than about raising livestock. For ten years I was
Secretary of the South Carolina Department of Agricul-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
55
Cartoon, ''Getting Together."
THE GREAT
56 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
ture, during which time i studied agriculture as closely
and as thoroughly as my clerical duties would permit.
When I graduated from that department and went into oil
milling I had learned enough about farming to know how
many tax tags it required for a ton of guano. All that I
have learned about farming since then is that cottonseed
meal ammoniated fertilizers are the best for Georgia soils
and Georgia crops. Notwithstanding my ignorance about
stock raising and farming, I hope in the time allowed me
to show you that our relationship is a very close one that
we have so many interests in common that we can trace our
relationship without the aid of a pedigree.
We believe that the oil mills by producing the best stock
feed ever made, dairying and stock raising in the South
will be possible and we hope profitable. These products
have placed the live stock interests of the South on a plane
with the live stock interests of the West. By using cotton-
seed meal and hulls you have helped the mills. We are
more or less dependent on you and you are partly depend-
ent on us. When a live stock raiser or a dairyman is a
farmer also it is always to his interest to exchange his seed
with the mills for meal and hulls. The mills are always
anxious to do this and by such exchanges both parties are
benefitted. These exchanges can be made on a basis of
pounds or on the cash values of seed and meal and hulls at
the time of the exchange.
A pamphlet recently published by the National Depart-
ment of Agriculture, gives the result of experiments in the
use of raw seed and meal in fertilizing land, which shows
that it is a great deal better to use the meal than the seed
THE QREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 57
OF THE SOUTH
for this purpose. Comparatively few seed are fed to cattle
and in most cases this is only when the seed are too far
from railroads to be hauled. I believe it is pretty well es-
tablished that the meal and hulls as a feed for stock are far
superior to the raw or cooked whole seed.
I assume, of course, you all know that cottonseed meal
and hulls make the best stock feed in the world, but it may
not be improper for me to tell you something about what
other people think of it.
The government special agent, Mr. Ben ton, appointed
from Georgia to travel through the Netherlands, Denmark
and other European countries, reported that at every point
visited he found cottonseed meal in high favor with all
stock raisers of those countries.
At the famous Tri folium dairy in Denmark, 15,000 head
of milk cows are fed on cottonseed meal. In all parts of
the South and throughout New England cottonseed meal
is the most popular of all dairy foods, and in actual feed-
ing value it stands at the head of all American feed stuffs.
Judge Hammond, of Augusta, has demonstrated that
when properly used it is the best feed for horses ; while Mr.
Allison, of Texas, has proven beyond question its great
value for fattening pigs.
Danish bacon, famous all over Europe for its delicacy of
flavor, is said to be mad^ from hogs fattened on cottonseed
meal. It seems, therefore, that as a feed for all animals
this product has proven entirely satisfactory.
In the South we are fortunate in having cottonseed hulls,
which the other countries have not, and which, when added
to the meal in proper proportions, makes a complete ration.
THE GREAT
58 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
I cannot impress upon you too strongly the fact that the
/interests of the stock raisers, dairymen, farmers and oil
mills are mutual. As a matter of fact the mills work largely
on a toll basis, just as the corn mills do. They figure on
the cost of seed, cost of working and the value of the prod-
ucts, leaving a margin for reasonable profits. Sometimes
they have obtained these profits and sometimes not. But
during the operating season they try to make such a differ-
ence between the cost of the seed worked up and the value
of the finished product as to give them only a fair profit.
As the greater part of the dairy products and beef cattle of
the South are consumed at home the two interests should
in every possible way work together.
In a recent conference with representatives of the South-
ern Cotton Growers' Association the values of seed were
discussed with representatives of the Interstate Cotton-
seed Crushers' Association. The quality of the seed from
North Carolina to Texas was considered along with the
yields, cost of working, freight rates, quality of the prod-
ucts and other matters of the same kind, and it was unani-
mously decided that owing to the varied conditions in the
different sections of the State that no definite value could
be fixed on seed so far as the oil mills are concerned. But
the representatives of the Southern Cotton Growers' Asso-
ciation recognizing the importance to the farmer of in-
creasing the value of cottonseed products decided that they
would advocate personally and through their association
an increased use of all cottonseed products by the farmers
themselves, substituting entirely cottonseed oil and com-
pounds made from it for hogs' lard and meal and hulls for
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 59
OF THE SOUTH
wheat bran, corn meal, hay and other products hauled from
the West.
The total production of seed in the South on a basis of
13,000,000 bale cotton crop is approximately 6,500,000 tons.
If 3,000,000 tons are used for all other purposes it will
leave about 3,500,000 tons for crushing. If the products
from these seed were used at home it would increase the
dairy business and cattle raising, which would be followed
Six Horses and a Mule, Which Get a Daily Ration of Cottonseed
Meal.
by the establishment of packing houses, adding another
great industry to this section. When all cottonseed prod-
ucts are used in the South, as will be done some time, it
will increase the commercial value of cottonseed and con-
sequently add largely to the value of the cotton crop.
We are now exporting to Europe about one-third of the
production of cottonseed nieal and one-third of the cotton-
seed oil produced, and we ought not to export a single J
pound of meal or a single gallon of oil.
THE GREAT
60 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
Some years ago there was a flourishing industry in the
United States in which the dairymen and the oil mills were
mutually interested, but which through national laws has
practically been wiped out of existence. This was the manu-
facture of oleomargarine. For this product you furnished
the milk and the oil mills furnished the oil. You prob-
ably feel about oleomargarine as the South Carolina editor
did who said it was a "horrible thought to him that as good
butter could be made out of the fat of a steer as from the
milk of the most beautiful Jersey in the South. 7 ' That was
sentiment with him, but with the oil mills and the dairymen
it is a business proposition. So far as I know there is no
movement on foot to repeal the oleomargarine laws, but it
may be well for our dairymen to consider whether or not
the repeal of these laws might not be beneficial to them in-
stead of harmful. There is no question about the purity
and wholesomeness of oleomargarine when properly manu-
factured. It furnishes a good substitute for butter at a
price within the reach of the poorest people and is good
enough for the richest. By the use of cottonseed meal and
hulls and by such produce as is raised on the farms there is
no question about the ability of our dairies to produce large
quantities of milk at a reasonable cost.
There seems to be some question about whether or not
the manufacture of butter at our dairies is profitable. In
the manufacture of oleomargarine sixty per cent, of the
weight is milk, the balance is cottonseed oil and beef stear-
inc. The establishment of an oleomargarine factory at
some central point would give an enormous demand for
milk which necessarily would increase its value. Would it
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
61
1
be better for you to sell milk and create a large demand for
it at better prices than you are now getting, or to manu-
facture butter?
Holland is the largest butter making country in the\
world. Holland also takes the largest amount of cotton- [
seed oil exported from America. That country is also the
largest manufacturer of oleomargarine. As far as I know
(here is no antagonism between the butter makers of Hol-
land and the manufacturers of oleomargarine ; they appar-
ently work together for their mutual interests, and the
dairymen do not object to the oleomargarine factories
which consume large quantities of milk. If that country
Colt Three Hours Old; Dam Fed on Cottonseed Meal Regularly.
^ THE GREAT
62 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
can import from America $4,000,000 worth of cottonseed
oil annually and make a profit on it, it seems that we
should in this country utilize that oil and keep the profit at
home. It is plain that one pound of pure odorless cotton-
seed oil added to three gallons of milk in the churn will
produce from one pound to one and one-fourth pounds of
butter as pure, as sweet and as delicious as the best Jersey
butter ever made. But, under the oleomargarine laws the
sale of such product is prohibited. If oleomargarine was
unwholesome there would be absolutely no argument in its
favor and its manufacture should be prohibited, even if it
was a great benefit to the dairymen or to the oil mills if it
was manufactured. But there is no question about its
wholesomeness and it is certainly the best substitute for
butter ever discovered.
A gentleman said to me some time ago that as the West-
ern butter makers realized that they can increase their but-
ter production by the use of oil costing from 5^ to 6 cents
per pound and sell it for 25 to 30 cents per pound they
would be the first to advocate a repeal of the law which
through their influence was enacted by Congress and which
practically destroyed the oleomargarine industry in this
country.
I have already consumed more than twenty minutes of
the time which I promised to talk to you, and only wish
to say in conclusion that I appreciate this opportunity of
advising with you and I am mighty glad to be with you.
You all look happy, rich and prosperous and I am sure that
much of your prosperity, wealth and happiness is due to the
free use you have made of cottonseed products.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 63
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER IV.
GEORGIA PEOPLE BUY COTTON OIL IN PREFERENCE TO HOGS'
LARD,
THE SUPERIORITY OF COTTON OIL OVER LARD.
They were discussing in the Piedmont lobby the big corn
and hog crop of the West and finally got on the relative
value and purity of vegetable 6ils and animal fats. One
Western man had said a great deal about the big corn crop
and the thousands of fat hogs that it would make and how
his firm expected to supply the cotton growers of the South
with lard this year. He was rather sorry for the Georgians
because they did not have more hogs, but glad on his own
account, as the South would give his firm a market for their
surplus product.
A cotton oil man. sitting in the group, observed that he
thought the South was raising its own lard this year in the
shape of cotton oil. The Westerner replied: "They will
never use it. There is too much prejudice against it right
here where you raise it." The oil man answered : "Preju-
dice ! Prejudice against a pure vegetable product ! Preju- '
dice against one of the most delicious of nature's products ! J
Why, do you know how completely and delicately nature/
has provided for the care of the oil in the cotton seed? In
every seed are thousands of oil cells, each containing a tiny
sack holding an almost infinitesimal globule of oil. These
little sacks are elastic, prevent evaporation and make it im-
THE GREAT
64 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
possible for the precious liquid to become contaminated by
contact with any other substance. All of these little cells
are then completely encased in the kernel of the seed, and
all safely housed and covered tightly with a hard shell im-
pervious to rain, hail, sunshine, disease or insects. So care-
fully protected by nature is the oil that it can only be re-
i eased by heat and pressure. When ready for market it is
pure, sweet, wholesome, almost snow white, and of delight-
ful flavor. The mills are selling it to consumers, who bring
their seed to the mills and carry back refined oil.
"If there is anyone in Georgia so lacking in good judg-
ment and good taste as to prefer animal fat of any kind to
cotton oil, such a citizen must live a long ways from the
public road, and if anyone still talks about prejudice
against cotton oil, he is simply making himself ridiculous.
"When Georgia grows 2,000,000 bales of cotton in a
single year and becomes the second largest cotton produc-
ing State in the South, her people would not be showing
the sound judgment that has made Georgia the Empire
State of the South if they did not consume their own prod-
ucts in preference to those produced elsewhere, particu-
larly where they are so far superior to the imported
article."
The argument seemed to be exhausted and the discussion
drifted on to crops and politics. Atlanta Constitution,
September 24, 1905.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 65
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER V.
A REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COT-
TON OIL INDUSTRY.
NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES A SOUTHERN MONOPOLY A
GROWTH AS SENSATIONAL AS THE CALIFORNIA GOLD DIS-
COVERY OF '49 THE VALUE OF THE BY-PRODUCTS TO THE
SOUTHERN CATTLE RAISER AND DALRYMEN.
"If the United States had, tAventy or twenty-five years
ago, followed up the admissions of European olive oil ex-
perts, that they could not detect one-third cottonseed oil
in their best olive oil and pushed the matter to its just con-
clusion, viz: That cottonseed oil was as pure and whole-
some although in itself lacking the peculiar flavor of olive ,
oil as the best olive oil, the United States would not to-
day be able to meet the foreign demand which would have
been created therefor."
"The fact that Germany, Denmark and the United King-
dom import over $12,000,000 worth of United States cot- (
tonseed oil cake is evidence enough as to its worth, for they
are the expert cattle feeders of the world.' 7
The two paragraphs quoted above are from the Daily
Consular and Trade Reports of the United States Depart-
ment of Commerce and Labor, October 9, 1906, and no
other evidence is needed to prove the value of these two
chief products of the cottonseed industry of the South, nor
is further evidence needed regarding the importance of the
THE GREAT
66 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
foreign trade in these two products, except to state the act-
ual figures as shown by the same report.
The total value of the oil exported for the year ending-
June 30, 1905, was $13,673,400; lard substitutes (com-
pounded with cottonseed oil), $4,154,200. The exports of
cottonseed oil cake amounted in value to f 13,073,400, and
of linters to f 1,433,925, making the total exports of cotton-
seed products, exclusive of the oil exported in oleomar-
garine, 132,334,925.
It may be some time before the South monopolizes cot-
ton manufacture, but natural conditions, followed by me-
chanical ingenuity and commercial activity have already
established a monopoly in the South in the manufacture of
high grade cottonseed products.
The cottonseed industry of the South is unique, because
it is "alone of its kind," especially when the diversified in-
terests concerned in it are considered.
Its history is interesting; its development as sensational
as the California gold discovery of '49. Its only set back
and the greatest financial danger it has encountered thus
far, has been its too rapid growth, production running
ahead of consumption, and crushing capacity exceeding the
supply of the raw material, at prices that the producers
could pay for seed on the market value for the oil, and this
danger might have been averted, as has been shown, if those
interested in it twenty years ago had made the proper ef-
forifat that time to push the sale and use of the oil in for-
eign countries.
So rapid was the increase in the number of crude mills in
a few years that refiners did not find markets for the fin-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
67
ished products, cooking oils and compounds, as fast as the
production of crude oil increased; consequently, the niiljls
were forced to depend largely on the limited number of
European buyers to take their surplus refined oil, and these
buyers knew well how to buy on congested markets. This
Cargo of Cottonseed Meal Fertilisers on Chattahoochee River.
has resulted in some years in serious loss to the entire in-
dustry, refiners and manufacturers of crude oil as well.
This condition seems to have passed, at least it has im-
proved, and while the profits have averaged less than the
average profits of other manufacturing establishments, par-
ticularly in recent years, more stable conditions seem to
have been reached, and better, broader and sounder judg-
ment displayed in the handling of the business.
Until about six years ago the producers of crude oil de-
pended largely on Eastern and Western refiners for their
THE GREAT
68 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
markets. About half of the oil was then, 1900, exported
after being refined, out of a total estimated production of
1,500,000 barrels. In 1900 a large number of crude oil
mills were purchased by Southern- refiners, and then fol-
lowed tvii increased production of the finished products and
an increased domestic and home use of the products. In
1905 only about one-third of the oil was exported against
one-half in 1900, although the total estimated production
had increased to about 3,000,000 barrels, making the do-
mestic consumption about 2,000,000 barrels against 900,000
barrels in 1900, thus doubling the home demand for it. This
increase* in the home use of oil gave a tremendous impulse
to the manufacture of crude oil and in the two years fol-
lowing the number of mills in the South almost doubled.
The increased use of the oil by Southern manufacturers
of finished products strengthened both foreign and domes-
tic demands for it, the development running on much the
same lilies as the result following the increased manufac-
ture of cotton by Southern factories. It has been further
helped by the general prosperity of the country in all lines
of manufacture, the improvement in agricultural condi-
tions, and the better buying ability of the people generally.
If the mistakes of the past are not repeated, if production is
allowed to run parallel with consumption, the demand for
all cottonseed products will soon enhance the values and
the industry will enjoy the same degree of prosperity that
has come to all other similar enterprises.
The products of this industry compete with the olive
growers of Italy, Spain and France, with the producers of
copra of the Pacific islands, with the cocoanut, peanut and
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 69
OF THE SOUTH
sesame oil manufacturers of Europe, with the packers of
the world, with the butter makers of Europe, Avith_the
Western growers of corn and hay, with the hog raisers or
the same section, and, in a limited way, with the European
growers of low grade cotton and cotton factory waste. They
also compete with the manufacturers of soap of all kinds,
wherever located. Not only do the products of the cotton-
seed mills and refineries compete in foreign markets with
the commodities mentioned produced in those sections, but
they also are forced to meet the competition of American
manufacturers and producers of similar commodities in
foreign and domestic markets. It is not surprising, there-|
fore, that the development of this industry has been re-
tarded because it met with so much opposition from so
.many different and conflicting interests.
The Interstate Cottonseed Crushers' Association,
through its publicity bureau, is trying to correct the mis-
takes and injury done the industry twenty-five years ago,
by failure to take advantage of foreign markets, as ex-
plained in the consular reports referred to, by more fully
advertising these products and thus creating a greater de-
mand abroad and at home, which would already have ex-
isted if the proper course had been followed by those con-
trolling the industry in its early history. In this work the
publicity committee is receiving the cordial co-operation
of the Bureau of Manufacturers, Department of Commerce
and Labor at Washington, D. C., the assistance of the trade
journals and the newspapers generally throughout t
United States and of the members of the association. It is
believed that a better knowledge of the value of these prod-
THE GREAT
70 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
nets will not only increase the demand, but will result in
more remunerative prices to both refiners and crude oil
mills.
A recent report of the Bureau of Statistics, Department
( I of Commerce and Labor, says : "The value of cottonseed oil
las a food product was not known in the early days of its
manufacture. In 1881 it was discovered that cottonseed oil
mixed with animal fats made an acceptable substitute for
ird. From that time the domestic demand greatly in-
creased. In 1880 about thirty per cent, of the cottonseed
oil manufactured in the United States was consumed at
home, while in 1905 it amounted to sixty per cent."
It has also been "discovered" that the oil in its natural
state is a satisfactory substitute for lard and other animal
fats. The demand for it as a cooking commodity is increas-
ing daily. Its purity and wholesomeness is attested by the
chemists, and practical experience supports the expert tes-
timony.
Kecently a great deal of interest has been aroused on ac-
count of an address delivered by Professor Connell, on the
value of cottonseed meal as a human food and competent
authorities have announced that this is entirely practicable
and that we may expect a large addition from this source
to the food products of America.
For one hundred and eighty years mills for crushing cot-
tonseed have been operated in Europe, but the differences
in the character of the products of these mills and those of
the South are almost as great as the differences between
woolen and cotton goods.
In the South the seed are worked directly from the fields ;
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 71
OF THE SOUTH
in Europe they are transported from Egypt and America,
reaching the mills many months after shipment. The prod-
ucts are necessarily inferior to those of Southern mills.
The manufacturing methods, too, are not the same. In
China, for possibly two thousand years, oil has been ex-
pressed from cottonseed, and is still produced by primitive
f
Exterior View of Large Cotton Oil Refinery.
processes, consequently it also is far inferior to the South-
ern product.
The Southern industry is, therefore, unique in that it /
"stands alone" in its methods of manufacture and in the
quality of its product. It is just as complete a monopoly
of its kind as the American production of Sea Island cotton.
The feeding and fertilizing value of the meal produced in K
the Southern mills is just about double that of the same
commodity manufactured in the English mills. The world
looks to America, therefore, for its high grade cottonseed
oil and high grade cottonseed meal. But with all these ad-
vantages the South does not derive the full benefit from the
THE GREAT
72 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
business, because a large part of the total annual pro-
duction of the cake or meal goes to foreign markets, prob-
ably half of the linters (short fibre) is also exported. The
meal and hulls are needed for stock feed, in order to in-
crease the number of beef cattle, milk cows and hogs in
the South. In no other way can packing houses be so suc-
cessfully established and the dairy products increased in
this section as by the use of cottonseed meal and hulls.
When all of the cake or meal and all of the linters are used
where produced and that now seems probable in the near
future the full benefit of the industry will be realized by
the people who own it, and by those who grow the seed.
The total production of cake or meal is about sufficient
to feed more than 1,000,000 head of beef and dairy cattle
the year round, while the hulls would supply roughage for
250,000 cattle for one year. If 1,000,000 head of cattle were
fed on the meal and hulls and the deficiency is roughage
supplied by native grasses and hay, then the hulls and meal
would supply 1,000,000 cattle for the entire year. As fat-
tening cattle are usually kept for only about six months on
food of this sort before being marketed, the supply of meal
and hulls supplemented with native grasses and hay would
supply 2,000,000 head of beef cattle for that time. Such a
use of these products would create packing houses through-
out the South and add another important industry to this
section that would be of immense benefit to the whole
people.
All of the hulls are now fed in the South to beef and
dairy cattle, but a large part of the meal is exported or
used in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers. This
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
73
partial loss to the South of the most valuable feed stuff
produced in any country shows a lack of appreciation jind
of enterprise that should not exist and will not continue
many years, as the value of the meal for feeding purposes
is better known each vear.
Interior View of Large Cotton Oil Refinery.
The industry has had to combat the prejudices of its own
people and the opposition of every competitor in every mar-
ket of the world. Sometimes the national government of its
own country, and even the governments of its own States
have been arrayed against it. The manufacturers of lard
first opposed its chief product and were followed by the
butter makers of the West, while the French, German,
THE GREAT
74 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
Austrian and Italian governments tried to prohibit by high
tariffs, the sale ol ! the oil in their own countries, but seem
to have succeeded only in increasing its use. In spite of
prejudice, opposition and imposition at home and abroad,
the high merits of cottonseed oil carried it through all these
difficulties, and to-day the demand for it is better than at
any time in its history; while the use of the meal and hulls
has about doubled in six years.
So the industry seems to have overcome all opposition
triumphantly and has worthily won the world's reognition
as one of the great manufacturing interests of the country,
and wears its honors becomingly.
In the further development of the industry the trend is
southward where the cotton grows. Here the crude oil is
produced, here it can be refined while it is sweet and pure,
fresh from the fields and the seed. With the establishment
of commercial exchanges in the leading Southern cities and
the coming of immigrant ships direct to Southern ports,
the trade with Europe will naturally come this way and
this will lead foreign dealers and brokers to look to South-
ern producers of finished products for their supplies.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 75
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COTTONSEED MILLS.
COTTONSEED MEAL IN DENMARK AND THE UNITED STATES
THE HIGH QUALITY OF AMERICAN COTTONSEED OIL THE
VALUE OF VARIOUS AM.ERICAN FEED STUFFS, INCLUDING
COTTONSEED MEAL AND HULLS.
In England where cottonseed mills have been in operation /
for one hundred and eighty years, they are known as cake
mills because the cake is largely used for cattle feed, and is
highly regarded by feeders for this purpose, large quan-
tities being imported in addition to that produced at home,
while in the South they are known as oil mills, because the
oil lias been regarded as the most valuable product. The
English cake, in feeding value, is worth only about sixty ,
per cent, of the American cake. The oil is also inferior to
the American product, because the seed are crushed whole,
all of the hulls going into the cake or meal, and the seed
are brought from Egypt or America, consequently they are
never sAveet and fresh like the seed worked straight from
the cotton fields by the American mills.
Although the English products are inferior to those pro-
duced in the South, they sell for much higher prices be-
cause their value is better understood and appreciated by
the consumers.
Last year the sunflower crop of Eussia was almost a
failure. When this was realized the stock feeders in Den-
THE GREAT
76 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
mark, where large quantities of sunflower cake is used, en-
tered the American markets for cottonseed cake, which they
had been using in limited quantities previously. The Dan-
ish buyers were followed shortly by the German and Eng-
lish feeders, which caused a sharp advance in price,
amounting to something over |5 per ton. Cottonseed meal
landed in Denmark, including freight, insurance, brokers
and jobbers 7 commissions and profits, probably cost the
feeders $35 per ton, while the highest price it reached in the
South in a retail way was $28 per ton, and only a small
quantity sold at over $25 per ton. This export demand
greatly assisted the mills in realizing a better price for cot-
tonseed meal than had prevailed in many years. Indirectly
it was a great benefit to the growers of seed, because it en-
abled the mills to pay better prices for seed, but even at the
price named, the meal sold at only about seventy per cent,
of its actual feeding value in comparison with other feed
stuffs. A product so valuable for feeding purposes should
never be used any other way. If all of the cottonseed meal
produced in the South was fed to cattle, it would result in
making this section a cattle raising country, and would cre-
ate a packing industry equal to that of the West. This has
been demonstrated by an enterprising citizen of Atlanta,
Ga., who started a few years ago feeding cattle in a limited
way on cottonseed hulls and meal. Meeting with much suc-
cess he established an extensive packing house, and now
supplies a large part of the meat products consumed in this
section. While cottonseed meal is the best commercial fer-
tilizer ever produced, it is too valuable as a feed staff to be
used for other purposes.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
77
The oil is the most valuable of all of the products of the
American mills. Its purity and wholesoineness recommend
it for cooking purposes or for salads. It is more econom-
ical than any animal fat, and, on account of its purity, is
necessarily healthful. It is a vegetable product produced
from a seed that is protected by nature from imperfections
Interior Vieiv of Cotton Oil Hogless Lard Plant.
of any kind, and is made entirely by machinery, while the
seed are still fresh, sound and sweet, and is refined by the
most approved methods. The United States Board of Of-
ficial Chemists at Washington has classed it ivith olive oil
without 'discrimination. The high-grade deodorized cook-
ing oil, manufactured from fresh, sweet cottonseed, is odor-
THE GREAT
78 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
less, tasteless and practically colorless, and is produced
without the aid or use of any injurious chemicals. One
pound of oil. of this kind is equal to one and one-third
pound of hog's lard for cooking purposes.
Comparative statement of values of the various feeds ex-
pressed in calories :
Feed
value, calo-
Carbohy- ries per
Protein.
Fiber.
drates.
Fat.
pound.
Cottonseed meal. . .
38.6
6.0
34.4
8.0
180*i
Feed meal
25.0
20.0
36.0
6.0
1760
Brewers' grain ....
19.9
11.0
51.7
5.0
1759
Corn
10.5
2.1
69.6
5.4
1756
Cow peas
16.6
20.1
42.2
2.2
1746
Oats
11.8
9.5
59.7
5.0
1717
Linseed meal
32.2
9.2
38.4
3.0
1635
Wheat straw
3.4
38.1
43.4
1.3
1734
Oat straw
4.0
37.0
42.4
2.3
1648
Red top hav
7.9
28.6
47.5
1.9
1612
Cottonseed hulls . . .
2.5
46.0
36.0
1.0
1644
Timothv hav
5.9
29.0
45.0
2.5
1591
Red clover
12.3
24.8
38.1
3.3
1537
Corn fodder. .
4.5
14.3
34.7
1.6
1062
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 79
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTEE VII.
How TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF COTTONSEED PRODUCTS.
('Address before the Inter-State Cottonseed Crushers' As-
sociation annual meeting at New Orleans, La.,
May 16, 1905.)
SOME RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY PUBLICITY.
A gentleman of long experience in the oil mill business
said to me recently, that whenever the mills have an unfav-
orable season they go around looking for a Moses, but at
the same time they are always ready to make suggestions
for the consideration of the Moses in case he should be
found.
In this spirit several interesting suggestions were made
during the recent crushing season, looking to improving
conditions.
One suggestion is that the mills shall establish co-opera-
tive refineries and refine and store oil until the market is
satisfactory to the producer, and another plan proposed is
that the crude mills shall stop crushing seed, and hold the
oil on hand until the production only equals the demand.
Both of these suggestions seem to have been based on the
idea of over production. The remedy offered for this con-
dition is that less oil should be produced.
This idea seems defective, first because oil was the only
product considered, and second because storing a product,
THE GREAT
SO COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
waiting for a demand might result in serious loss, while the
closing down of the crude mills without making proper ef-
fort to better these conditions otherwise, might impair the
value of the investment.
Entertaining the hope that a Moses will appear, if
needed, I submit the suggestion that it is better to increase
consumption than to curtail production, and to justify this
plan the home demand for our product must be increased.
, Our industry is closer than any other to the farmer who
\ sells us his seed. In a measure, we work on toll for him
jusi as the corn mill does. He is not now our largest cus-
tomer, but he should be. The farmers of the South need all
of our products and we need their surplus seed. Whenever
we can pay good prices for seed, we realize proportionate
prices for our by-products. An unfavorable feature of the
business is that we do not sell enough of these products to
the parties w r ho sell us their seed. They are our best cus-
tomers for what they buy, and we should show them it is
to their interest to buy more largely.
Twelve years ago at Atlanta we sold our meal to fertilizer
companies or exported it. At the same time we used hulls
for fuel. At this time about three-fourths of our meal is
sold to feeders and dairymen, and we are unable to supply
the demand for hulls from local production. The demand
/ has been created by hard work among the farmers and
dairymen. If similar efforts were made in other parts of
Georgia, and the South, Ave should have very little surplus
meal and hulls, and if any cake or meal was exported, it
would bring satisfactory prices.
Our agricultural experiment stations should be induced
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 81
OF THE SOUTH
to take greater interest in oil mill products. Besides mak-
ing practical experiments, and advertising results, thay
should employ lecturers to address the farmers' institutes
on the value and use of meal and hulls, and thus keep them
constantly before the people. If the mills would follow up
this work with exchanges of meal and hulls for seed, they
would greatly enlarge their home market.
Marketing oil is not so easy a proposition as marketing
the by-products, but the home use of it can be increased.
Our friend, Mr. Jo Allison, and our secretary,,Mr. Kobt.
Gibson, have shown that a pound of high grade cooking oil,
added to three gallons of milk in the churn, will add
than one pound of fine butter to the yield. This field is un-
limited. Mr. Allison says that one million gallons of milk
are churned every day in Texas. If to every three gallons
of milk, one pound of oil was added, we would have a mar-
ket in Texas alone for our surplus oil.
At one refinery in Mississippi about 1,000 barrels of oil
are sold annually to local consumers. If each of the crude
mills in the South sold one-half as much, they would take
from the market the biggest surplus the trade has ever
known. In Georgia we have recently established a retail
trade for the cooking oil at many of the crude mills, and
although this has been in operation only a few weeks, the
result is most encouraging.
While much of what is here outlined may be accom-
plished by individual effort, it can be greatly expedited by
proper organization. Ever}^ state in the South should have
State Crushers' Associations. These organizations should j
co-operate with the manufacturers of oleomargarine, who
THE GREAT
82 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
it is understood will work for a repeal of the oleomargarine
law. These associations should assist in every effort to pro-
mote friendly foreign relations in our interest, and prevent
unfriendly domestic legislation, and should devise means
tor the proper advertising of our products among our own
people.
State associations are necessary to make more effective
the rules governing the sales of products adopted from time
to time by the Inter- State Crushers' Association and by the
commercial organizations interested in our trade. Many
of the disagreements growing out of transactions bet ween
the mills are due to a misunderstanding of the terms of the
trade and the rules which were made.
Properly managed, the great industry is of immense ben-
efit to the South. It should be encouraged in every legiti-
mate way.
Let us get together and forget the little troubles we have
and take a bigger and broader view of the whole situation,
and turning our eyes to the future, work on the principle
of the "Georgia Gospel" as expounded by that sunny
hearted Georgia poet Frank Stanton :
"No use in grievin 7
'Bout the milk you spill ;
Keep on believin'
That the cow'll stand still."
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 83
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER VIII.
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT COTTONSEED OIL.
HOW IT MASQUERADED UNDER DIFFERENT NAMES IN DIFFERENT
COUNTRIES HOW IT WAS MIXED AND BLENDED WITH
OTHER AND INFERIOR PRODUCTS HOW IT WAS FINALLY
PUT ON THE MARKET UNDER ITS OWN NAME AND TRI-
UMPHANTLY WON ON ITS HIGH MERITS.
The manufacture of cottonseed oil is a peculiar Industry
and while all other manufacturers have enjoyed some kind
of protection from the government, this has lived in spite
of governmental opposition and without assistance from
the government. For many years during the growth of this
infant industry it was satisfied to live under many nom de
plumes. As the sweet New England songster, the bobolink,
delighted the musical artists of New England and after-
wards pleased the palates of the epicures of Charleston, as
the rice bird, so cotton oil was willing to become olive
oil in Spain, peanut oil in France, cocoanut oil in the Phil-
ippines, sesame oil in Africa, lard oil in Chicago, corn oil i
in Cincinnati, hog lard oil all over the world, butter in the /
Jersey Islands, and still remain the cottonseed oil of the
South.
Finally its aristocratic brethren, the olive growers of
Europe, appealed to their respective governments for pro-
tection against this invader, which had become more popu-
lar than themselves in their own countries. They succeeded
in having almost prohibitive duties levied upon it when ex-
THE GREAT
84 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
ported. This was pretty hard, but when the government of
the United States prohibited the manufacture of oleomar-
arine, cotton oil found itself without friends in any of the
governments of the world and opposed by its own govern-
ment. It concluded that it was time to throw off all dis-
guises and stand in its own right and on its OAVU merits be-
fore the world. It was then converted into cottolene and
advertised as a cotton oil product and under this name its
popularity increased. In Georgia, at Savannah, it enters
into the composition of Snowdrift, one of the purest and
best of compounds, and into Flakewhite at Macon, and it
has proven to all people that these products are Avholesome
and free from diseases common among swine. It now
spurns any connection with hog fat. It no longer mas-
querades under the name of any foreign oil. In Savannah
it is Wesson Snowdrift oil, good for cooking and salads,
and competes with the best olive oil and butter.
So popular has cottonseed oil become for edible and cul-
inary purposes that the handful of olive growers in Cali-
fornia once declared that the palates of the people had
become so accustomed to the flavor of cotton oil, that they
had come to regard the pure olive oil as adulterated.
Some of our own Southern State legislatures passed
laws against the use of cotton oil in the manufacture of
butter substitutes, for the protection of the few dairymen
who make Jersey butter. Since the manufacture of oleo-
margarine was practically prohibited by national legisla-
tion, many of the best hotels of the country have been
flooded with a renovated rancid butter, disgusting to the
palate and not wholesome to the stomach.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER IX.
A GENERAL REVIEW OF THE COTTON OIL INDUSTRY.
(Annual address before the Inter-State Cottonseed Crush-
ers' Association, Louisville, Ky., May 19, 1908.)
THE WORK OF THE INTER-STATE COTTONSEED CRUSHERS' ASSO-
CIATION FOR THE YEAR 1908 THE CONDITIONS AFFECTING
THE INDUSTRY ITS IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES THE CO-OP-
ERATION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IN PROMOTING
ITS INTERESTS THE FOREIGN TRADE OLEOMARGARINE
GRADING COTTONSEED- PUBLICITY BUREAU EXHIBITS OF
COTTONSEED PRODUCTS.
When you met at Jamestown a year ago you had just
closed a fairly successful operating season. You were able
to submit balance sheets to your stockholders showing reas-
onable profits on their investments. If the result this year
is not as satisfactory as last it is due to causes largely be-
yond your control. You can at least congratulate your-
selves upon having ended a phenomenal season without se-
rious loss, following financial conditions that closed banks,
forced railroads into receiverships, and overwhelmed many
other industries, while no actual failure of cotton oil mills
has been reported and the future of your business is exceed-
ingly promising.
The acreage in cotton this year, with good crop condi-
tions, insures you the raw material needed, and the in-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
creased demand for your products is the best guarantee of
future sales.
THE FUTURE DEMAND FOR COTTON OIL.
There is little probability of an increased production of
olive or other vegetable oils in Europe. The increasing-
population of the world provides for any probable increase
in the production of cotton oil, and the Eastern markets
opened to this product last year are among consumers who
do not use animal fats. As the seasons go by the merits of
this oil become better known, and it must necessarily sup-
ply the shortage in the world's requirements.
If you think that I am too sanguine regarding the future
demand for your oil I refer you to the flood of reports
coming from United States consuls regarding conditions
in foreign markets. I quote only a few :
Consul James E. Dunning, Milan, Italy. "Short crops
are bound to occur in Italy every few years, while the pros-
pects for the general normal trade in cottonseed oil is prom-
ising in the extreme. The prospect for future development
of the trade is excellent. Cotton oil has become nearly
indispensable to the Italian market."
Consul Paul Nash, Venice, Italy. "Even under the best
conditions Italy cannot produce edible oil enough for home
consumption, plus the demand for olive oil abroad."
Consul-General Frank 11. Mason, Paris, France. "The
use of cottonseed oil for cooking purposes is increasing
rapidly not only in France, but in Italy and other Euro-
pean countries."
Consul-General Skinner, Marseilles, France. "The
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
worldwide need of oils arid greases goes on increasing,
while the raw material areas are known, limited and sub-
ject to no systematic effort toward eulargement."
Consul-General Ekehl, Germany. "American cottonseed
oil is used extensively here."
Consul William Harrison, Bradley, England. "There i>s
a large and increasing use of cottonseed oil here."
Consul-General Loren Listoe, Netherlands. "Cotton-
seed oil is imported and used in the Netherlands in great
quantities."
Consul Frank B. Hill, Holland. "Imports (of cotton
oil) are increasing every year and are almost exclusively
from the United States."
Consul George M. Ilotschick, Austria. "Cottonseed oil
hundreds of thousands of barrels of which are consumed
cannot be produced either in Austria or in all Europe
and is not in any way to be replaced."
Consul Felix S. S. Johnson, Switzerland. "Each year
shows a marked increase in cottonseed oil importations."
Consul Jesse B. Jackson, Syria. "The importation of
the products of cottonseed oil is increasing very rapidly."
Consul-General G. E. Anderson, Rio de Janeiro. "As
between olive oil and cottonseed oil, conditions generally,
including tariff rates, are decidedly in favor of the cotton-
seed product."
No further evidence is needed to prove that the high |
quality of your oil and the demand for it have been firmly
established in the markets of the world, and especially in
the olive-growing regions. The puny attempts of a few olive<
Growers in California to discredit cottonseed oil may be
THE GREAT
88 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
compared with a Florida zephyr trying to stop a Texas
tornado.
Not only has cottonseed oil proven its superior quality,
taking its place alongside the best grades of olive oil, but
your chief by-product, cottonseed meal, is finding new uses
in foreign and domestic markets, which means a demand
at fair prices for any production that may reasonably be
expected.
Conservatism in your business and persistent advertising
of your products will secure you fair, just and reasonable
returns on your labor and investment for the coming
season.
THE OBJECT OP THE ASSOCIATION.
In some sections of the South conditions other than
financial have made the business unsatisfactory, but an
improvement may be expected even in this respect in the
near future. There are ho irreconcilable differences be-
tween the refining and the crude interests ; none should be
allowed to exist and none possible do exist between those
who are members of this association.
In discussing the sentiments and purposes of the United
States toward the South American republics Secretary
Koot used words that will define the objects and purposes
of this association. He said: "We desire to increase our
prosperity ; to extend our trade ; to grow in wealth, in wis-
dom and in spirit; but our conception of the true way to
accomplish this is not to pull down others that we may
profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a common
prosperity that we may become greater and stronger to-
gether."
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 89
OF THE SOUTH
Membership in the association will, as Secretary Root
again says regarding trade, -establish kindly and agreenWe
personal relations which are so potent in leading to busi-
ness relations."
Those interests you represent here, whether your own
or others, are best served by contributing to the success of
this association that has already accomplished so much
good for the industry and, by reason of what it has already
accomplished, is in position to increase these benefits many
times over in the future.
You have left your homes and come to this meeting for
a serious business purpose ; you are earnest business men ;
you have come to serve the highest and best interests of the
industry you represent, and you Avill do this with fidelity
and loyalty. The pleasure and entertainment that our
Louisville friends have prepared for us will be thoroughly
enjoyed and appreciated and A\i 11 contribute, in a large
measure, to the success of the work you have come to do.
Like the dressing to the salad, it will make better the
serious part of the program.
COTTONSEED PRODUCTS IN FOREIGN MARKETS.
As a rule the values of all commodities are governed by i
the markets where the surplus is sold. Eecognizing this
fact, your officers have endeavored to maintain those for-
eign markets already secured for your products, and to in-/
crease the demand in those countries where about one-third '
of your products are now sold, and to create new ones, real-
izing that conditions existing there reflect and react upon
your home markets.
Two years ago, under President Bailey's administration,
THE GREAT
90 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
the State Department at Washington, co-operating with
the Department of Commerce and Labor, was induced to
call for reports from the United State consuls in all parts
of the world showing stocks of cottonseed products and
stocks of oil-bearing seeds and commodities competing
with cottonseed products in the various countries to which
these consuls were accredited. In addition to this the con-
suls were requested to report on the consumption and uses
of the products and the possibility of further increasing
the sales.
These reports have been made, and published, daily, as
received by the Department of Commerce and Labor, and
were also published as a separate pamphlet last year and
distributed at Jamestown. A second edition, including
the first pamphlet and all consular reports received since
its publication, was issued this year by the department
under special authority and by special appropriation of
Congress. These publications have been interesting and
exceedingly valuable to every one engaged in the industry.
They have not only shown what has been done, and what is
being done, but what may be done to further increase our
trade, and how to increase it. These reports have been
mailed by the Department of Commerce and Labor to every
member of our association, and they have contained abun-
dant practical information. The manufacturers individ-
ually, and the association collectively, should take advan-
tage of the opportunities thus presented.
In addition to the consular reports called for, Hon. Oscar
S. Straus, Secretary of the Department of Commerce and
Labor, last year appointed Mr. J. L. Benton as a special
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 91
OF THE SOUTH
foreign agent to travel, in foreign countries and investigate
conditions affecting our industry and to exploit our prod-
ucts. Mr. Benton discharged these duties with admirable
fidelity and unusual ability, but owing to ill health was
compelled to resign the position. Subsequently, on the
nomination of our association held in New Orleans in Sep-
tember, 1907, Mr. A. G. Perkins was appointed to succeed
Mr. Benton, and he has already submitted some very val-
uable reports, and as he acquires experience and a fuller
knowledge of the conditions in the countries visited he will
be of even greater service to the industry.
The members of this association should co-operate fully
with the Department of Commerce and Labor and the
Bureau of Manufactures and sustain Mr. Perkins in his
work by every means in their power, but especially should
they encourage him by letters of commendation and by
suggestions that will help him to produce practical and
satisfactory results.
The association is greatly indebted to Hon. Oscar S.
Straus, Secretary of the Department of Commerce and
Labor, and to Hon. John M. Carson, chief of the Bureau of
Manufactures in that department, for the great interest
they have shown in our industry and for the practical
services they have rendered, and suitable resolutions to
that effect should be adopted at this meeting.
With the work now being done to advance and maintain!
o v ir foreign trade by the government, by its consuls an<
special agents, and with the splendid advertising by oui
publicity bureau and by the State bureaus, we can expeci
THE GREAT
92 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
within a reasonable time a considerably increased demand
for all of onr products.
Hon. John M. Carson, of the Bureau of Manufactures,
Department of Commerce and Labor, has furnished me
statements of the total exports of cottonseed products for
the jears ending March 1907 and 1908, as follows:
Domestic Exports of Cottonseed Products from the United
States During the Twelve Months Ending March
31, 1907 and IMS, Respectively.
EXPORTS OP COTTONSEED PRODUCTS, YEARS 1907-1908.
-1907
Pounds. Value.
Cottonseed oil, gallons 41,350,396 $15,724,580
Cottonseed oil cake and meal . . .1,196,319,442 15,403,858
Lard compounds and substitutes 78,533,955 5,703,672
Total 136,832,110
r- -1908 -^
Pounds. Value.
Cottonseed oil, gallons 39,742,710 $17,619,241
Cottonseed oil cake and meal . . . 1,060,291,437 13,367,748
Lai-d compounds and substitutes 75,228,754 6,147,713
Totals $37,134,702
This shows total value of exports last year $36,832,110,
against $37,134,702 this year, exclusive of linters.
Cousul-General Hugh Pitcairn, of Hamburg, reported on
December 23, 1907, that "owing to the scarcity and high
value of cottonseed oil, churners resorted to experiments
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 93
OF THE SOUTH
which greatly hurt butterine consumption, increasing the
popularity of another product, viz., cocoanut butter, which
in many sections of the country has almost entirely re-
placed butterine so far as the lard requirements of bakers
and confectioners are concerned."
It is probably true that the high prices of cottonseed oil
in European markets, together with the financial stringency
of the times, is one of the chief causes of the slight decline
in the total amount exported. It is also doubtless true
that the domestic cousuniYjtion of oil has greatly increased
the demand for the pure oil and compounds made from it,
such as lard substitutes and oleomargarine, which reduced
the quantity available for export.
COMPLAINTS BY IMPORTERS.
Iii his able address to the association at Jamestown last
year Major John M. Carson, chief of the Bureau of Man-
ufactures, Department of Commerce and Labor, said:
'''The principles that underlie successful trade are funda-
mental, and the law that directs it, although unwritten, is
universal. Strict integrity is just as essential in the
Orient as in the Occident."
This sentiment is fully indorsed by this association, and
in order that our trade may not suffer by reason of any
departure from it we should carefully and thoroughly in-
vestigate any complaints coming from any customer, for-
eign or domestic, against any member of this association.
The high reputation for personal and business integrity
enjoyed by the members of this association must be main-
tained.
THE GREAT
94 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
Consul Robert J. Thompson, in a report to the govern-
ment from Hanover, Germany, says : "The moral status of
the cottonseed meal and oil trade does not seem to be in
a condition satisfactory to the German importer. There is
a general complaint against the irresponsibility of the
brokers of certain of the Southern cities. Charges of bad
faith and failure to fill contracts are freely made and claims
of inability to collect judgments against the American ex-
porter granted under contract by the arbitration board of
the Hamburg Association of Feed Merchants are cited by
old and established dealers. If this be true the remedy
that would at once suggest itself would be the establish-
ment of a penalty clause in the by-laws of the Cottonseed
Crushers' Association involving the forfeiture of member-
ship of mills or brokers shown to have violated articles of
agreement or contracts with foreign purchasers, and par-
ticularly so with the foreign purchaser, because of his fear
of expense and uncertainty in instituting legal proceedings
to recover losses in a foreign state and his lack of facilities
for the collection of debts or judgments. The maintenance
of confidence in foreign trade is one of the greatest essen-
1 tiaLs and if the clean and honorable development of a great
and growing industry can be furthered by the excision and
sacrifice of harmful elements organized provision should be
thus made by the cottonseed interests to protect and pro-
mote the trade."
We do not know that there is any just cause for the com-
plaints reported by Consul Thompson, but they should be
investigated either by the committee on appeals and griev-
ances or a special committee appointed for that purpose,
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 95
OF THE SOUTH
and the characters of the parties against whom the, com-
plaints or charges are made vindicated, or the facts estab-
lished and the penalty enforced. We cannot permit an
indictment like that made by the German importers to pass
without notice.
I have requested Special Agent Perkins to urge all
reputable foreign dealers in our products to become mem-
bers of this association, in order that any grievances they
may have may be brought before this body for correction,
and I am glad to say that several have already sent in their
applications for membership, and it is probable that others
will do likewise at an early date.
THE HANDLING OF COTTONSEED PRODUCTS BY OCEAN STEAM-
SHIP LINES AND IN FOREIGN PORTS.
You are familiar Avith the various reports that have been
made by the special foreign agents on the handling of cot-
tonseed products by ocean steamship lines and in foreign
ports. The report of Special Agent J. L. Benton covering
this subject, published by the Department of Commerce and
Labor Bureau of Manufactures, impressed the executive
committee with the necessity for prompt and vigorous
action.
The president, Avith the authority of the executive com-
mittee, called a special meeting of the association to con-
sider the matter, and this was held in New Orleans, Sep-
tember 23, 1907. Representatives of ocean steamship lines
were present and the subject fully and exhaustively dis-
cussed between them and our members. The result of the
meeting Avas the appointment of committees from this asso-
THE GREAT
96 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
elation to confer with the representatives of the ocean
steamship lines at New Orleans, Galveston and other ports,
with a view to bringing about improvements in the ship-
ment of cottonseed products by ocean lines, and in the
discharge of these products by the ships in foreign ports.
The reports of these various committees will be submitted
to you at this meeting for your consideration. It appears
therefrom that the mills are to blame in part for the bad
conditions existing, in that they do not put up their
products in proper packages. It will also appear, however,
that the steamship lines do not exercise the care in the
handling of these products, both in the loading and unload-
ing, that their value and the freight paid justifies, and from
a recent report of the special agent of the government, Mr.
Albert G. Perkins, it is evident that conditions on the other
side have not improved, and that the handling of cottonseed
meal, especially, continues to be very badly done, to the
great injury and damage of the product. This report of
Mr. Perkins has doubtless been read by every member of
this association.
Possibly those mills which do not themselves export oil
or meal, do not fully realize their own interest in the ques-
tion. Our domestic market depends in a large measure
on the foreign markets, and, therefore, every mill manu-
facturing oil or meal is interested in keeping the foreign
markets in the best possible condition. To do this the
association must put its powerful influence behind this
movement and every member must feel a personal interest
in the result. The government agents have shown us one
of the causes of the heavy losses in our business. The
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 97
OF THE SOUTH
duty and the responsibility to correct this condition is on
us.
1 advise that standing committees be created at each of
the ports where cottonseed products are exported in suffi-
cient quantity to justify it; that these committees continue
to press the matter on the transportation companies, and
that they co-operate with *the special government agents
abroad and with the mills at home to the end that the pres-
ent wasteful methods may be abolished.
Direct trade with Europe has always been the dream of
the South. The great industry we represent will contribute
much toward the realization of that dream if its interests
are fairly and justly treated.
IMPROVED CONDITIONS IN FOREIGN MARKETS.
Cottonseed oil has found a ready market in all European
countries. Naturally, it was first introduced into those
countries where the people were accustomed to the use of
vegetable oils. Having been considered alongside of olive
and all other vegetable oils, its usage became general. In
fact, its adoption was so universal that the producers of
other oils, disturbed over its popularity, succeeded in
having some of their governments enact tariff laws to pre-
vent cotton oil competition. But the fact is being gen-
erally recognized that the producers of other oils cannot
supply the demand, and a more conservative feeling in
regard to the tariff now prevails.
Spain and Austria alone now have tariffs that are prac-
tically prohibitive, and a modification of these tariffs may
be expected. This is especially true of the Austrian laws.
THE GREAT
9 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
Owing to the great development of the oleomargarine in-
dustry, efforts have been made, and are now being made,
by the State Department at Washington to bring about
a reduction of the Austrian tariff, arid this is also being
urged by the Austrian manufacturers of lard and butter
substitutes, who recognize that their trade by the imposi-
tion of the high tariffs has been injured. The Austrian
Economical Society has also taken up the matter as shown
in a recent report of United States Consul McFarland:
"Meetings are being held and pressure being brought to
bear upon the government to secure a reduction of the
present rates."
During the year our government succeeded, through the
work of the American Embassy at Constantinople, in re-
moving all restrictions on the sale of cottonseed oil in the
Ottoman Empire, and sales were almost immediately made,
the contracts for forward oil amounting, according to the
report of Cousul-General Ozmun, to one thousand barrels
monthly. The consul adds that "this opens up an inviting
field to American producers."
In January Hon. Elihu Hoot, Secretary of the Depart-
ment of State at Washington, completed an agreement with
the French ambassador to America by which the minimum
duty on cottonseed oil was retained by France. This was
a distinct victory for our industry, as the maximum rate
had been threatened.
In other European countries the tariffs are not burden-
some, and are not likely to affect our exports.
In South America all the conditions favor cotton oil, at
least in such countries where we are likely to do business.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 99
OF THE SOUTH
Consul-General Anderson says of these markets that "the
market is growing rapidly and promises much." "As~be-
tween olive oil and cottonseed oil," he says, "conditions
generally, including tariff rates, are decidedly in favor of
cottonseed oil."
So far, therefore, as the present foreign tariffs are con-
cerned, conditions are favorable to our product, except in
Spain and Austria, and the latter will no doubt soon find it
necessary to modify her laws.
RECIPROCITY.
In January last, Mr. Alvin H. Sanders, chairman of the
American Eeciprocal Tariff League, advised us that a
meeting would be held in Washington on February 3, repre-
senting the National Manufacturers 7 Association, the Na-
tional Grange, Chicago Board of Trade and other com-
mercial organizations, and extended an invitation to our
association to send a representative. This invitation was
submitted to the members of the executive committee, who
favored its acceptance, and Mr. T. S. Young, of New York,
was appointed a delegate. He will submit his report to
this meeting.
In this connection and bearing on this subject, I wish to
call your attention to the foreign tariffs on cottonseed oil
and to the American duties on oils of various kinds under
the United States tariff laws. Without going too much
into details it is sufficient to state that many of the coun-
tries of Europe levy tariffs against cottonseed oil, while we
levy similar tariffs on other vegetable oils imported into
this country. The American tariff on olive oil not spe-
THE GREAT
100 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
cially provided for is 40 cents per gallon, and on olive oil in
bottles, jars, etc., is 50 cents per gallon. Practically all of
the other vegetable oils are taxed by our government to
some extent, while our product suffers similarly in some
other countries.
In advising me of the agreement between the United
States and France by which the minimum duties on cotton-
seed oil were retained in France, Secretary Boot says : "I
take this occasion to call your attention to the importance
to American trade of our having a maximum and minimum
tariff so that we can make it an object for other countries
to give us their lowest rates. Under our present single
tariff system we are obliged, practically, to trade with other
countries alike, no matter how they trade with us."
You are familiar, of course, with the recent message of
President Roosevelt urging tariff revision. This matter
has also been vigorously pushed by the National Associa-
tion of Manufacturers and our co-operation requested. I
will present. to the meeting some recent communications
from this association on the subject for your consideration.
In view of the large trade that our industry enjoys with
foreign countries, this matter should have most serious
consideration, and 1 think should be handled by our legis-
lative committee between the sessions of our association.
OUR FOREIGN TRADE AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.
King Edward of England is called the great commercial
drummer of Europe. His principal rival in this field is
Emperor William of Germany. While the heads of these
powerful governments are vigorously pushing the commer-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 101
OF THE SOUTH
cial interests of their respective countries it is exceedingly
fortunate for us that our government has among its hig4i
officials men capable of competing with them for the
world's trade.
In his trip through South America Secretary of State
Root justly earned for himself the honored title of the great
commercial drummer of America. His public speeches on
that trip should be read by every American manufacturer
and exporter.
The Secretary of the Department of Commerce and
Labor, Hon. Oscar S. Straus, is pre-eminently a business
man and fully understands the importance of encouraging
and advancing American commercial interests. In the
organization of the National Council of Commerce and in
the investigations which he has caused to be made in
foreign markets of conditions affecting American products
lie has shown a realization of trade conditions that demon-
strates his perfect fitness for the great business position
which he holds.
If American manufacturers will follow up the way
pointed out by Secretaries Root and Straus, they will find
markets for their products at prices sufficiently remunera-
tive to take their surplus and will aid greatly in the
removal of all signs of industrial depression or financial
stringency. We are deeply interested in all that the heads
of these two departments are doing to promote our foreign
trade. If we will take advantage of the vast amount of
information they have published on this subject we will
realize increased profits and a more satisfactory business.
THE GREAT
IQ2 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN TRADE.
The vast amount of information collected by the Depart-
ment of Commerce and Labor through its consular reports,
and through the reports of its special agents regarding
foreign commerce dealing with cottonseed products should
be properly utilized in order that we may get the full
benefit of it at the time it is of the greatest value.
I therefore recommend that a committee on foreign trade
in cottonseed products be created. The duty of this com-
mittee should be to keep in close touch with the foreign
trade and market conditions through the Department of
Commerce and 'Labor and the special foreign agents and
consuls of the United States, and should keep the members
of the association informed through the bulletins of the
publicity bureau, and more promptly by other means when
they think advisable, and confidentially to the members
only if they think this best. The committee could handle
all inquiries from foreign dealers and could often put a
prospective purchaser in touch with a manufacturer and
thus increase the demand for the products.
The committee would also, in connection with the legis-
lative committee, keep thoroughly posted regarding the
tariff laws of ail countries affecting cottonseed products.
The committee, co-operating with the port committees,
would further keep advised of the conditions affecting
transportation of cottonseed products to foreign markets,
the terms offered by ocean lines and show, so far as con-
sistent advantages of shipments through American ports
offering the greatest inducement.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 103
OF THE SOUTH
It is a waste of energy and of our resources to continue
to allow our products to be handled as ballast, with the
consequent loss, while we pay high ocean rates on it.
THE BELGIAN CONSUL-GENERAL.
During the year the Belgian consul-general, Hon. Paul
Hagemans, made a trip through the South. While in that
section he devoted considerable time to the study of cotton-
seed products. Belgium does a very large business in these
products with the United States, and it is hoped that the
res Lilt of Hon. Paul Hagemans 7 visit will be to largely in-
crease this business.
INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITIONS.
Expositions of both general and special character are
held in some of the European countries almost every year,
and it would be of great benefit to our industry to have
complete exhibits of cottonseed products at many of them.
In his annual report for 1907, Hon. John M. Carson,
chief of the Bureau of Manufactures, Department of Com-
merce and Labor, calls attention to these expositions and
advises that the national government should accept invita-
tions frequently extended to our country by foreign coun-
tries to participate in them, and encourage industrial or-
ganizations to make exhibits of their products under the
patronage and protection of the national government. He
further suggests that the various State governments might
make special appropriations to assist industrial enterprises
in making such displays of the products of their States.
I would recommend that our publicity committee be
THE GREAT
104 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
requested and authorized to act with our executive com-
mittee in giving special attention to this matter, and be
directed to co-operate with Hon. John M. Carson in arrang-
ing for participation in such expositions wherever prac-
ticable, and when such work promises adequate returns
that other organizations be requested to join with us, and
that the various State legislatures be petitioned to make
sufficient appropriations to cover the necessary expenses.
It can be justly urged that any benefit derived by our in-
dustry from such an expenditure of public money would
likewise be of great and permanent value to other interests,
and especially to growers of cotton in the South, inasmuch
as an increased demand for cottonseed products would add
immediately and permanently to the value of the cotton
crop.
OLEOMARGARINE.
There is now pending in the United States Senate,
Senate Bill No. 3152, introduced by Senator Penrose, which
I understand if passed, would absolutely prohibit the man-
ufacture of oleomargarine in the United States. There is
also pending in the House, House Bill No. 557, introduced
by Mr. Caulfield, a bill which I am informed would repeal
all laws regarding the manufacture and sale of oleomar-
garine in the United States except, of course, the national
pure food laws.
We are interested in the manufacture of oleomargarine,
at least to the extent of the amount of cotton oil used in
this product and, further to the extent that its manufacture
may become of benefit to Southern dairymen. In European
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 105
OF THE SOUTH
countries cotton oil is extensively used in its manufacture,
and its use for this purpose forms a very large part of the
foreign demand for cotton oil.
Oleomargarine is a sweet, pure, wholesome edible prod-
uct and is sold, I understand, in this country in full com-
pliance with the pure food laws, both national and State,
\vhich are sometimes almost prohibitive in their provisions.
The production of butter in both this country and Europe
falls far short of the demand. It was stated recently in
the London Daily Mail that the supply of butter had fallen
below the demand for many years, and had actually
reached the proportions of a famine in different parts of
England.
Without substitutes for butter the poorer people
especially will be deprived of this absolutely necessary
article of food. Oleomargarine has proven a satisfactory
substitute. There seems to be no good reason why laws
discrimating against its manufacture in favor of other
products should be enacted, yet both national and many
of the State governments have put restrictive laws on their
statute books.
The New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court
recently decided the oleomargarine law of that State un-
constitutional in an important respect. The court held
that constitutional principles were violated by the enact-
ment, "which absolutely prohibited an important branch of
industry for the sole reason that it competes with another
and may reduce the price of an article of food for the
human race."
This matter is brought to your attention at the request of
THE GREAT
106 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
several members so that it may receive such consideration
by you as you may decide it deserves. In order that it
may be intelligently discussed I have, after consultation
with our executive committee, extended invitations to the
oleomargarine manufacturers to send representatives to
this meeting, and several of them have responded. On
behalf of the association I take pleasure in welcoming
them here and in offering to them the usual courtesies of
the occasion.
Mr. J. J. Culbertson, of Texas, a member of this associa-
tion, has consented to deliver an address on this subject
during this meeting.
DISCUSSING THE PRICE OF COTTONSEED.
At the special meeting held in New Orleans in Septem-
ber, 1907, an invitation was extended to us by Hon. Harvie
Jordan, president of the Southern Cotton Growers' Asso-
ciation, to appoint delegates to meet a delegation from his
association to discuss with them the price of seed, with a
view, if possible, of establishing some staple price. The
delegates were appointed under resolution adopted by you
with instructions to discuss the value of seed, but under no
circumstances to enter into a discussion of price.
The meeting was held and the report on the result will
be submitted to this convention by Mr. M. S. Harper,
president of the Georgia Cottonseed Crushers' Association,
one of our representatives at the joint meeting.
Our association is unique among commercial and indus-
trial organizations in that it has never sought to fix prices
on the raw materials, the supplies its members purchase,
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
107
nor on the products they manufacture. On the contrary,
at its New Orleans meeting in September, 1907, the asso-
ciation placed itself on record against such practices, and
it is not likely that its policy will ever be changed in this
respect, but other associations holding different views have
adopted a different course. The executive committees rep-
resenting the Cotton Growers' Association and the Na-
Heari of the American Sardine Packing Industry, Where Cotton
Oil Is Used in Packing Fish.
tional Farmers' Union have attempted to fix prices on
cottonseed, frequently naming a price without proper re-
gard to the value of products and without giving due con-
sideration to other conditions. Often the price proposed
for seed has been beyond the ability of the mills to pay and
in excess of the value of the seed to the growers themselves.
The high prices recently paid for seed by the mills will
be hard to maintain under any circumstances, but the
THE GREAT
108 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
farmers may do much in that direction by more generally
using cottonseed products in their homes and on their
farms, instead of using competing articles. There is no
better, more wholesome or more economical cooking fat
than cottonseed oil, yet the growers of cottonseed continue
to some extent to buy other articles for cooking purposes
inferior to cotton oil and competing with it.
Cottonseed meal stands at the head of American feeding
materials in the percentage of fat and protein, the ma-
terials most needed for stock feed, and yet in many sections
growers of seed import other feeding material not so val-
uable as cottonseed meal and pay higher prices for it.
Likewise the growers of seed import hay and roughage for
stock feed and pay from three to four times as much for it
as they do for cottonseed hulls, equally as valuable if not
superior to the articles imported.
Cottonseed meal contains a high percentage of ammonia.
No material, properly mixed with phosphoric acid and
potash, makes a better commercial fertilizer for Southern
soils and Southern crops, yet growers of cottonseed go on
using other sources of ammonia in their fertilizers, paying
as high or higher prices for it, thus creating and supporting
competition against their own and the interests of the oil
mills.
Co-operation between the farmers and the mills is most
desirable, in their mutual interest, so far as it can be had in
legitimate trading. Much has been done to bring this
about by the interstate and State publicity bureaus of the
crushers' associations, and much more can and will be done
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 109
OF THE SOUTH
in the educational work in which those bureaus are now
working.
GRADING COTTONSEED.
At our last annual convention at Jamestown resolutions
were adopted, unanimously, calling attention to the preser-
vation and better care of cottonseed and recommending
that the members of this association in each State urge
upon their legislatures such enactments as will fully pro-
tect the buyers of seed by requiring sellers to deliver such
goods as they guarantee. It was further directed that a
committee be appointed in each State from the members of
this association for the purpose of carrying out the recom-
mendation.
These committees were appointed by the president, and
considerable correspondence resulted. For various reasons
the matter was not pressed in any of the States, but the
committees appointed at that time will submit the reports
required during this session and such further action taken
as the association thinks proper.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES.
Your executive committees have worked unceasingly
for the good of the association. Without such work noth-
ing could have been accomplished. It is a great pleasure
also to add that the individual members have promptly re-
sponded to every call on them where the association's work
has been concerned.
The good resulting from such cordial co-operation be-
tween officers and members was recently demonstrated in
one particular matter pending before Congress in which
THE GREAT
HO .COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
our industry was deeply interested. Acting together they
were able to show to the members of Congress the necessity
for the continued appropriation of funds to carry on inves-
tigations regarding our products in foreign markets and to
aid in securing favorable action thereon. It also demon-
strated the influence of your association and the impor-
tance of your products. This is only one of many similar
instances that have occurred during the year.
In discharging the duties assigned to me I have had the
active assistance of the executive committee, without which
any efforts on my part to promote your interests would
have resulted in failure.
RULES.
At your last annual meeting the by-laws were so amended
as to require the committee on rules to meet in advance of
the regular annual meeting of the association and prepare
such amendments to the rules as might be presented and
approved, and to print and distribute to the members such
changes in the rules as the committee recommended.
In accordance therewith the committee met at New
Orleans, La., on March 24, 1908, and discussed all amend-
ments proposed. Their report was printed and distributed
to our members. This report has now been in the hands
of the members about two weeks, and will also be sub-
mitted to this meeting for your consideration and such
action as the meeting may see proper to take.
The committee carefully considered every change sug-
gested and worked hard, intelligently and unselfishly to
perfect the rules and adapt them to every condition affect-
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY HI
OF THE SOUTH
ing the trade in cottonseed products. I hope their recom-
mendations will receive your approval.
FINANCIAL.
The annual report of the secretary and treasurer fur-
nishes the details of receipts and disbursements. The
year has been an unusually busy one for the association,
involving unusual expense. The special meeting of the
association held in New Orleans in September, the extra
meeting of the rules committee at New Orleans in March,
the several extra meetings of the executive committee at
Memphis and New Orleans, the litigation over the tariff on
press cloth, were all the result of conditions arising out of
the growing importance of the association's work.
The bureau of publicity has also done much more work
than heretofore, including an increase in its publications,
the expense being necessarily larger. While the receipts
have practically all been expended the association closes
the year out of debt and with probable income sufficient for
the ensuing year to meet all current expenses.
THE SECRETARY.
The annual report of the secretary and treasurer, Major
Kobert Gibson, will be submitted as usual. I wish to add
my testimony to that of all the presidents who have pre-
ceded me regarding Major Gibson's absolute faithfulness
and loyalty. He has served you since the organization of
your association. If he thinks about anything else on
earth, besides his own family, or if he loves anything in the
world better than your work, I have not discovered it after
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
about three years of close personal contact with him.
Other members of your association have served you with
fidelity and interest, but they did sometimes think of some-
thing else besides the association's work, while his mind
never wanders to any other subject. I believe if you should
wake him up at midnight or drag him drowning from the
bottom of the Mississippi River, he would ask you for your
dues. His report is comprehensive, but if it fails to give
you any information that you want, search him and I will
guarantee that you will find it in his pocket or in his head.
PUBLICITY BUREAU.
I ask your most careful attention to the annual report of
the publicity bureau. Crude mill managers individually,
as a rule, formerly made very little effort to increase the
value of the products, and the refiners were often too well
satisfied to allow the refined products to be used as adul-
terants. The creation of the publicity bureau has caused
some changes in this respect. This work has brought to-
gether in closer relationship the refiners and the producers
of crude oil. Its work has shown the mills that none of
the products have brought their value in comparison with
the commodities with which they compete, and this has
resulted in promoting new markets and new uses, and, con-
sequently, increased values. The refiners have also more
fully realized this, and together with the crude mills have
given a more permanent value to the products.
It is, therefore, surprising that the financial support
given the bureau should be so far less than it requires.
This must be due to the fact that the good which has
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
113
already been accomplished, and the opportunities for still
greater results, are not fully understood by the association.
Up to the time of the establishment of the bureau prac-
tically all of the advertising of oil and the products of oil
An English Exhibit of Cotton Oil and Hogless Lard. Confec-
tioners' Exhibition, London.
had been done by the refiners. The rapid increase in the
number of crude mills and the consequent increased pro-
duction of crude oil made it necessary to create a demand
sufficient to meet the increased production of the oil, as
weil as the higher price of the raw material.
THE GREAT
114 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
The creation of the bureau of publicity was an offer on
the part of the crude mills to contribute their share of the
necessary advertising expenses and to co-operate with the
refiners in further exploiting cottonseed products. Some
of the refiners declined this offer and withdrew from the
association. Other refiners have given only lukewarm
approval to the movement, while others, more in sympathy
with it, have been more generous in their support. The
splendid results that might be accomplished by co-operation
between the refiners and the mills does not seem to be
fully appreciated.
The work accomplished by the bureau this year is fully
set forth in the report of the committee, and should be
gratifying to the association. The committee has per-
formed its duty fully, and the advertising which it has given
cottonseed products is of the highest character. Its pub-
lications have been models of excellence.
While the opportunities before the publicity bureau, with
proper support, are unlimited, there is much, very much,
that individual millers can do on their own account and in
their own towns by co-operating with the bureau in making
better home markets. This is too often neglected. If
every manager and every employe would use the products
hiinsself and talk about them more, advertise in his local
papers, show to regular customers and to possible cus-
tomers their value and how to use them, he would be of
benefit to the mills and to the purchaser and to the com-
munity and would accomplish surprising results. With
the publicity bureau back of him to furnish the literature
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 115
OF THE SOUTH
needed, he would find the \vork not only pleasant and profit-
able, but intensely interesting.
The convention should determine what amount is needed
to sustain the bureau of publicity, and so provide for it in
a practical and definite way.
EXHIBITION OF COTTONSEED PRODUCTS.
There is no Southern industry that has been more bene-
ficial to the country than the manufacture of cottonseed
products.
It has established a permanent value for cottonseed,
adding thereby over sixty million dollars to the value of
the cotton crop annually, even if only sixty per cent, of the
seed are crushed.
It has caused the investment in the South alone of ap-
proximately seventy-five million dollars, giving employ-
ment to over twenty-five thousand people. It has increased
the export trade of the United States by between thirty-five
and forty million dollars annually. Oil, its most valuable!
product, has partly supplied the shortage in olive and other
vegetable oils in Europe, created, by the increasing popula- '
tion of the old world. It has successfully entered into the
manufacture of oleomargarine, butterine and other similar!
substitutes in Europe and America, thus furnishing
wholesome products in many sections where butter has bef
come almost unknown. Lard substitutes made with it
have largely supplanted hogs' lard and almost made the.
South independent of this Western product.
Its by-products have made dairying and cattle-raising in
the South possible and profitable, and, in addition, an-
THE GREAT
116 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
nually supplies to European stockfeeders and dairymen
about six hundred thousand tons of cottonseed meal and
cake, the richest and best-known stock feed ever produced.
In time it will create great packing-houses in the South.
It has enriched the soil and restored abandoned lands to
their original fertility, greatly increasing the yields of all
crops.
So far as the United States is concerned, the crushing of
seed is, and must necessarily remain, a Southern monopoly.
Mills are operated in England, Germany, China, India and
South America, but nowhere are the products of these
equal in quality, or even approximately so, to those pro-
duced in the Southern States from seed gathered fresh from
the fields.
If this meeting would appoint a committee to take charge
of an exposition illustrating these facts, to be held in some
central city of the South offering the greatest inducement,
either through municipal guarantees or through commer-
cial or business organizations, I feel sure that the neces-
sary amount to cover the expenses of such an exhibit would
be raised, and the most unique, the most interesting and the
most useful, practical display would be made that has ever
been gathered together in the South. If the next annual
meetings of the interstate and all the separate State or-
ganizations were held in the city selected for this purpose
at the same time, and if possible arrangements made for
the dairy and stock associations to participate in the meet-
ings and the exhibit, and similar arrangements made with
the manufacturers of all mill machinery, such a meeting
would bring together the largest industrial convention
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY H7
OF THE SOUTH
ever held in the South. The city entertaining the conven-
tion would derive immense benefit from it. The practical
result to our interests would be of incalculable value.
If individual exhibits were made by the manufacturers
of refinery products and the crude mills, the expense in-
volved would be small compared to the results, and the asso-
ciation itself would be called on for an insignificant part of
the expenses needed, particularly if the city selected for the
exhibit should contribute liberally for the purpose.
I submit the matter to your consideration, and if you
think the suggestion practicable would advise that a com-
mittee be appointed from among your members to co-
operate with committees from stock, dairy and machinery
associations throughout the country, and endeavor to ar-
range for such an exhibition, the details to be worked out
by these committees.
ADVERTISING.
We are frequently called on by parties in foreign coun-
tries, as well as by our own people, for information regard-
ing our products. At no time in the history of our indus-
try has there been more public interest in these products
than at present. We should cultivate this condition. Our
interstate publicity bureau and the various State bureaus
have done splendid work in this direction, especially within
the last year, and in addition to this our association should
prepare and publish pamphlets in convenient form to an-
swer special inquiries. I have just received an inquiry
through Special Agent Perkins from the German Agricul-
tural Society, an organization of German farmers with a
THE GREAT
H8 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
membership of 16,000, publishing a weekly bulletin, asking
for information regarding the feeding value of cottonseed
meal. We should be ab]e to answer this with printed mat-
ter in concise, and yet complete, shape; it should give scien-
tific as well as practical values. I suggest that the pub-
licity committee be requested to prepare a pamphlet that
will meet this condition.
During the year Dr. A. M. Soule, dean of the Agricul-
tural College of Georgia, carried a train through that State
with exhibits of articles of interest to the farmers, accom-
panied by lecturers able to explain the exhibits. Through
the courtesy of Dr. Soule the manufacturers of cottonseed
products were allowed to arrange in their exhibit car a
full line of cottonseed, products and to send a man with the
exhibit to explain it. The result has been most encourag-
ing, and if followed in other States will prove of great ben-
efit to our millers.
The opportunities for advertising are unlimited, and if
we did more of it through the trade journals and the news-
papers the demand for these products w r ould immensely in-
crease. /
TRADE JOURNALS.
What some one has called "hypnotism of the types" has
been realized by our association. Owing its origin to a
member of the press, it has received from the beginning the
highest consideration of the trade journals, without whose
assistance its success could not have been attained.
The talented editors of these papers, inspired by high
motives of public good, have, by their encouragement, their
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 119-
OF THE SOUTH
timely advice, their support of every movement for the good
of the business, greatly assisted in promoting this work,
and, in addition to their editorials, have freely used the
columns of their papers, without charge, to exploit and
advertise cottonseed products.
Their good influence has been far-reaching, and we owe
them a debt that cannot be cancelled entirely by resolu-
tion ; we should express our obligation and our gratitude in
the usual manner, and thus show them that their brilliant
work for us has been appreciated.
But we should always remember that some substantial
recognition is just as essential to their business as to ours.
In many parts of the country the daily press has also shown
our interests unusual consideration, and, while this has
been done without hope of reward other than a recognition
of the great public service rendered, we should, wherever
possible, remember them when we are pasisng around the
possible, remember them when we are passing around the
small, and the fishes should be whales, not minnows.
OUR ASSOCIATES.
Our friends who have laid aside their own important
business affairs to accept our invitation to address this
convention and to participate in its deliberations and dis-
cussions will receive your most courteous attention. They
come at our request to give us the benefit of their experience
in the use of our products and to advise with us on other
matters in which we are interested. Such encouragement
and assistance will be greatly appreciated by you and will
THE GREAT
120 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
facilitate the further development of our industry, and we
will profit by their presence.
In your name I extend to them a most cordial welcome
to our meeting and thank them for the sacrifice they have
made in our interest.
IN MEMORIAM.
It is well that we should pause in the pursuit of business
to pay proper respect to the memories of those of our
members who during the year have "crossed over the
river," to recall their services, to praise their virtues and
to express our obligations to them for what they have
taught us by precept and example. Since our last meeting
we have lost from our membership by death Major Robert
A. Allison, of Winona, Miss.; Mr. C. S. McCullough, of
Darlington, S. 0., and Mr. J. S. Armstrong, of Dallas,
Texas. They were all prominent in our association, con-
tributed liberally of their means, time and talent to its
work and to the development of the industry it represents.
It is fitting that the association should recognize this by
suitable records on the minutes and in the reports of its
proceedings. Knowing that this will be indorsed by you I
have appointed committees from among the friends of each
of our deceased members and requested them to present
suitable resolutions to this convention expressive of the
sentiments of this association on the losses its members
have sustained.
CONCLUSION.
Gentlemen of the convention, you represent one of the
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 121
OF THE SOUTH
world's youngest, greatest and most beneficial industries.
Its great interest commands your earnest and most careful
attention.
You will have before you at this meeting the considera-
tion of questions involving the continued growth and pros-
perity of your industry ; its future is largely in your keep-
ing; much depends on what you do during the next few
days ; upon your actions may hang future success or failure.
From no other source can or will these interests be so well
guarded. I believe that here on the banks of the Ohio, the
lins that formerly divided the people of this great country
in strife, now a band that binds us together in mutual
friendship and interest in this great city of Louisville,
famous in song and story, you will be inspired to still
greater efforts to promote the good of your own great in-
dustry, and when you have returned to your homes and
resumed your usual occupations, you will realize and ap-
preciate the benefits you have derived from your attendance
here. In the conduct of your business at home you will
need the patience of Job and the righteousness of Abraham,
but if you will be both patient and righteous, you will, at
our next annual convention, be able to rejoice over your
complete success and to congratulate yourselves on the
good that you have done, not only for yourselves and your
stockholders, but for the country at large.
I need not say in conclusion that it has been the greatest
pleasure and the greatest honor of my business life to have
served you in the high position to which, by your partiality,
you elected me. I have watched with the greatest interest
and satisfaction the wonderful development of the indus-
THE GREAT
122 COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
try. It has grown iii a short while, as measured by trade
developments, from a few scattered mills on the Mississippi
and in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, to that of a
great manufacturing industry, conferring benefits on our
people, receiving indorsement and encouragement of the
national government, creating other industries, and win-
ning the world's recognition of its products. But there yet
remains much to be done before its full development is
reached. That this will be accomplished and that every
obstacle to our trade will be removed will not be doubted
by any one familiar with the energy, ability, honesty and
loyalty of the members of our association.
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 123
OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER X.
A MODEST LITTLE STORY OF A BIG LITTLE SEED.
A SHORT SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF COTTON OIL--
PURITY OF THE PRODUCT ITS VARIOUS USES ITS BENE-
FITS TO THE SOUTHERN COTTON GROWER.
It is said that story is simply an abbreviation of Ms-story,
and, therefore, a story well told contains as many facts as
history. In the following little story, of great achieve-
ments from humble beginnings, everything will be facts
except where the reverse can be inferred :
Tradition tells us that on the site of ancient Athens,
where opposing forces struggled for supremacy, a seed
dropped from Heaven between the rocks and sprouted, from
which sprang a wonderful plant, and so long as it was culti-
vated agriculture in that country flourished. It has always
been supposed that this was an olive, because it is an oil-
bearing fruit and because oil has always been considered an
emblem of plenty.
Two thousand years ago the Chinese are said to have
expressed oil from the cottonseed, and to have appreciated
its merits. Nearly two thousand years later the southern
part of the United States realized the value of cottonseed
for its oil-bearing properties, and in a small way expressed
the oil, and shipped it to foreign countries. At first it
reached those markets in such small quantities that it was
difficult to find buyers for it, and it was used for whatever
THE GREAT
124: COTTONSEED INDUSTRY
OF THE SOUTH
purpose the purchaser desired it, principally in the soap
kettle. As larger quantities crossed the waters, the manu-
facturers of olive oil had it brought to their attention, and
investigation showed that it ranked with the highest grade
of olive and other similar oils. It soon came back to this
country masquerading under foreign titles, and dressed out
in foreign garbs. So long as it associated only with the
aristocratic olive, and was in such good company, no fur-
ther efforts to exploit its virtues were made by the manu-
facturers, until the production reached a point where
larger markets were needed. It then found its way to the
Western packers, and they were shrewd enough to realize
its value to them, as it was cheaper than lard oil. The
purity of cottonseed oil was such that it finally went into
the market under its own merits, asserted itself under its
own name, and declared its independence, and has since
been recognized as the best, the purest and most wholesome
product in any part of the world.
A tourist asked a citizen, "What is cottonseed oil?" and
the citizen answered, "Oil made from cottonseed,'' and
thought he had told him all there was to be told.
A primrose by the river's brim,
A yellow primrose was, to him,
And nothing more.
If the question had been asked of any well-informed
person, the inquirer would have been told a great many
other things. He would have been informed that the man-
ufacture of cottonseed oil has contributed enormously to
THE GREAT
COTTONSEED INDUSTRY 125
OF THE SOUTH
the wealth of the South, has established a business giving
employment to thousands of people, and added millions to
the export trade of this country. He would also have been
told that if each inhabitant in the State of Georgia would
use cottonseed oil in the place of lard and butter, all of
the oil produced in Georgia would be used in the State, and
in cfoing this the increase in the market price of the oil
would be sufficient to increase the value of cottonseed prob-
ably one million dollars, which would go directly to the
farmers of Georgia, and that if the oil was used in the same
proportions throughout the South for a few years, its en-
hanced value would make the seed as valuable as the lint,
and the health of the people would be greatly improved.
With these benefits and advantages to the South, the in-
quirer would naturally ask why the people of this State
do not use cottonseed oil more extensively for salads and
cooking. The answer would be that its value has not been
fully appreciated.
OVERDUE.
YC 26041;
.
223167
TVNews
OpenLibrary